UNITED NATIONS, April 29. /TASS/. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expects Russia’s response through official channels to a letter on the grain deal that he had sent earlier, Guterres’ spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Friday.

He answered in the negative to a reporter’s question about whether the UN had received any reply from Russia. That would be sent to the UN secretary-general from the administration of Russian President Vladimir Putin, not via the Kremlin spokesman, Dujarric said.

Earlier this week, the UN chief handed Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov a letter addressed to Putin that included ideas about how to implement the grain deal, with similar letters being sent to Ukraine and Turkey.

On July 22, 2022, a package of agreements on food and fertilizer exports to the global market was inked in Istanbul for a period of 120 days, and then was extended for the same period in November. On March 18, 2023, Russia announced that the deal would be extended for 60 more days, saying this would be enough time to assess the efficacy of the memorandum signed with the UN. The Russian Foreign Ministry pointed out that any additional extensions of the deal would hinge on whether Rosselkhozbank is reconnected to SWIFT; the exports of agricultural equipment, spare parts and maintenance services resume; the insurance and reinsurance restrictions as well as the ban on calls to ports are lifted; the Tolyatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline is restarted; and foreign assets and accounts of Russian companies related to production and transportation of food and fertilizers are unblocked.