VOLGOGRAD, November 1. /TASS/. Washington is smuggling oil from deposits in northeastern Syria to the tune of over $30 mln per month, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters on Friday.

"Bypassing their own sanctions, the Americans are smuggling oil from Syria worth over $30 mln per month and are not going to leave these areas in the near future," the diplomat noted.

The diplomat stressed that the US military’s actions regarding the oil fields in northeastern Syria were illegal. "Today’s international community cannot help but ask questions at a time when a civilized country that systematically declares its commitment to some democratic values and international law, is pumping oil out of the northeast of Syria, a sovereign state, and masks its criminal activity by some pretexts of a struggle against the Islamic State [outlawed in Russia]," Zakharova stated, recalling that the IS terrorists were defeated this March.

Earlier, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley announced that the US sought to keep control over the al-Tanf base and Syrian oil fields belonging to the ConocoPhilips oil conglomerate located around Deir ez-Zor. The Russian Defense Ministry claimed that Washington was smuggling Syrian oil to other countries, and the convoys were under protection of US private military companies and special ops units.