UNITED NATIONS, April 19. /TASS/. The West is using Ukrainians as cannon fodder in its proxy war against Russia, Russia’s First Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dmitry Polyansky said on Tuesday.

"Western colleagues’ concern for Ukraine and Ukrainians is quite selfish and self-serving," he said at a United Nations Security Council meeting. "They need Ukrainians only as cannon fodder in their proxy war against Russia “down to the very last Ukrainian.”

Russia opens humanitarian corridors every day, but the Ukrainian side is reluctant to use them, Polyansky noted.

"We declare humanitarian corridors on a daily basis, [we] declare ceasefires every day, we did it even today, regarding the Azovstal plant in Mariupol, but the Ukrainian side doesn't use it. They ignore those appeals," he noted.