Hungary and Slovakia have found a route for Russian oil supplies as an alternative to shipping through Ukraine

Hungary and Slovakia have asked Croatia to allow the transport of Russian oil through the Adria pipeline, while Ukraine continues to block transit through the Drujba pipeline, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Sunday, according to the MTI agency, quoted by Agerpres.

“We request Croatia to allow the transport of Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia through the Adria pipeline, according to the rules of Brussels”, respectively the exception granted to the two landlocked EU countries to continue importing Russian oil, despite the sanctions imposed on Russia, according to a statement signed by Szijjarto.

“The security of a country's energy supply should never be an ideological issue, therefore we expect Croatia, unlike Ukraine, not to jeopardize the security of oil supplies of Hungary and Slovakia,” the Hungarian minister added.

And Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico accused Ukraine on Sunday of delaying the restart of the Drujba pipeline in order to pressure Hungary through “political blackmail” to give up the opposition expressed by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to a future accession of Ukraine to the EU, a statement Fico made at a joint press conference in Bratislava with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry claimed on Thursday that the transit of Russian oil through the Drujba pipeline has been suspended since January 27 following a Russian attack. However, Fico claimed for his part that he has information according to which the pipeline would have been repaired in the time since then, adding that he does not believe the version of any of the two parties involved in the war, Russia and Ukraine.

“There were so many lies from one side and the other that I don't have the courage to say who bombed or destroyed part of the oil infrastructure,” remarked Fico at the same press conference.