Russia's First Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Dmitry Polyanskiy, accused the United States and Western countries of trying to control Libyan energy resources.

Polyanskiy said during a speech at the UN Security Council on Tuesday: "They want to turn Libya into a gas station that they exploit for their benefit, and it is clear that many sources of livelihood for the Libyans have been destroyed."

He considered that “the US administration is exploiting the political process in Libya and serving its economic interests by manipulating oil prices, as Washington’s pressures do not aim to settle the Libyan conflict, but to preserve the status quo as it is.”

He continued: "Of course, Washington does not care who extracts the oil and on what legal basis. The most important thing for them is to remove Russia from the international energy market, and this is similar to the policy towards other oil-producing countries in the Middle East and North Africa."