BUDAPEST, February 17. /TASS/. Hungary and Slovakia are seeking to receive Russian oil it via the Adriatic pipeline and their request to Croatia for the transit should be satisfied in accordance with EU rules, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said.

He said this in response to attempts by Zagreb and Brussels to delay the resolution of this issue.

He noted that Ukraine is blocking the transit of crude from Russia for political reasons, and therefore oil supplies can be shipped by sea to the Croatian port of Omisalj on the island of Krk, and from there by land to the two Eastern European countries.

This will not violate EU regulations, as Hungary and Slovakia are exempt from sanctions imposed on Russia for oil purchases, Szijjarto noted.

"That is why we, together with the Slovaks, have appealed to the Croatian government to act strictly in accordance with European regulations and ensure the transportation of Russian oil through the Croatian pipeline," the Foreign Minister said in a video message broadcast by the M1 television channel.

He added that Hungary and Slovakia are not asking Croatia "for any favors," but simply want mandatory EU regulations to be observed.

"And finally, the Adriatic pipeline can be used for precisely what it was built for – as a supplementary pipeline to the main route from the east," Szijjarto noted.

Following Hungary and Slovakia's appeal, Croatian Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Ante Susnjar stated that Eastern Europe's energy supplies should not be jeopardized and that his country must help its neighbors. At the same time, he warned that Croatia would act in accordance with the decisions of the European Commission and the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which handles sanctions.

For her part, European Commission spokesperson Anna-Kajsa Itkonen stated in Brussels that Hungary and Slovakia's request would be discussed at the next meeting of the Commission's Petroleum Coordination Group. She asserted that the request was for a special permit for Russian oil shipments by sea, which would be time-limited and strictly controlled.

The Hungarian company MOL, which uses Russian oil at its refineries, announced that it expects to begin shipping oil from Russia by sea to Croatia and then via the Adriatic Pipeline to Hungary and Slovakia no earlier than March. As a precaution, MOL management asked the Hungarian Ministry of Energy to consider providing crude from the state's strategic reserves. According to the company, these reserves contain enough oil for three months.