MOSCOW. May 23 (Interfax) - The true goals of the NATO coalition's activities in Libya cause serious doubts, and therefore Moscow demands that the alliance regularly inform the UN Security Council about these activities, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in a statement.
"Serious doubts emerge about the true political goals of the military campaign the coalition is conducting in Libya," Lukashevich said.
"Despite assurances about commitment to the goals of the international community's well-known decisions on Libya, NATO is in fact seeking to change the regime in Libya, as is evident from the U.S. Department of State's statement, for which nobody authorized the alliance," he said.
"In this context, by continuing to call for strict compliance with the spirit and the letter of the decisions the UN Security Council has made on Libya, Moscow insists on the need to regularly inform the Security Council about all of the actions the NATO coalition is taking to enforce UN Security Council resolutions 1970 and 1973," he said.
World media outlets reported, citing a spokesperson for the command of the NATO coalition in Libya, that NATO fighters destroyed eight Libyan naval ships at the ports of three Libyan cities, including Tripoli, declaring that this had been done to protect the civilian population and ensure security of the allied forces at sea, Lukashevich said.
"This inevitably causes the question as to how the strikes upon Libyan naval targets, among which, according to certain reports, there were several coastguard ships undergoing maintenance at the Tripoli port, comply with UN Security Council Resolution 1973's goal of stopping violence and attacks on civilians, commitment to which NATO representatives have declared repeatedly," he said.
"Our deep concern about the escalation of the coalition's military actions in Libya is all the more justified as reports about NATO attacks leading to deaths of peaceful Libyans have been multiplying day by day," Lukashevich said.
It was reported recently that the coalition had intensified its strikes upon Libyan civilian administration sites, including the parliamentary compound and the building of the main national control committee, which are located in the residential quarters of Tripoli.