Russia has described Monday's power grab by Khalifa Haftar as "surprising", state news agency RIA cited a foreign ministry source as saying.

According to a statement by The Kremlin on Tuesday, Russia believes a political and diplomatic process is the only way to resolve the conflict in Libya.

These remarks by Moscow, which is one of the major backers of Haftar, came after Haftar moved to seize control of the country on Monday, citing a mandate by Libyans asking his General Command to topple the Libyan Political Agreement, signed on December 17 2015 in Skhirat, Morocco.

"In Moscow, we remain convinced that the only possible resolution in Libya can be through political and diplomatic communication between all parties, above all those in conflict," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

He added that Russia remains in contact with all participants in the Libyan process, as it believes that there are no other ways to resolve the Libyan problem.

Meanwhile, the European Commission considered the declaration of Haftar unacceptable, according to a statement by the spokesman on foreign affairs and security policy of the European Commission Peter Stano.

Stano added in his statement on Tuesday that unilateral actions will not facilitate the reconciliation effort in Libya.