British medical volunteers have claimed the Ukrainian army duped them into crossing the border before trying to conscript them as “cannon fodder” for the battle of Kyiv.

Carl Walsh and Ollie Funnell left the UK with the hope of putting their expertise to use treating casualties in the warzone, but were instead told they would be deployed to defend Ukraine’s besieged capital.

Mr Walsh, 50, is a former combat medical technician from the Rhondda Valley in Wales and had met Mr Funnell, a paramedic turned teacher from Eastbourne, East Sussex, heading in the same direction at Krakow airport on March 11.

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Speaking on Wednesday on the Polish side of the border with Ukraine, the new friends told The Telegraph they could hardly believe their ordeal had only lasted five days.

Both men contacted the Ukrainian embassy in the UK to offer their help after seeing the appeal by Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, for volunteers to join his country’s resistance against the Russian invaders, dubbed the international legion.

Read more: The Telegraph