Moscow has expressed regret over the start of an international operation in Libya, Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said.

“Moscow regrets the armed action undertaken in Libya by a number of countries with reference to a hastily adopted U.N. Security Council Resolution 1973,” he said on Saturday, March 19.

“We strongly urge both all Libyan sides and the parties involved in the military operation to do everything possible in order to prevent the suffering of the civilian population and stop fire and violence as soon as possible,” the spokesman said.

“We demand that exhaustive measures be taken in order to ensure the safety of foreign diplomatic missions and their personnel. We especially insist on the inviolability of the Russian Embassy in Tripoli and of the Russian citizens in Libya,” he said.

“We are still convinced that it is necessary to stop the bloodshed immediately and begin a dialogue between the Libyans themselves in order to achieve an effective settlement of the Libyan conflict in the interests of stability and democratic future of that country,” Lukashevich said.

“We believe it important to use for that the upcoming visit to Libya by representatives of the African Union Ad Hoc High-Level Committee on Libya,” he added.