UNITED NATIONS, June 21. /TASS/. The United Nations is working to ensure that all agreements signed as part of the Black Sea grain transportation deal, including the memorandum of understanding between Russia and the UN, are functioning, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General Farhan Haq has said.

"What we are trying to do is to ensure that both the Memorandum of Understanding and the Black Sea Initiative continue [to function]," he said.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin said on Tuesday that UN representatives had admitted during consultations on the grain deal that nothing can be done to meet Russia's three demands, namely the resumption of the operation of the Togliatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline, supplies of agricultural machinery and spare parts, and re-connecting Rosselkhozbank to SWIFT.

Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned that any extension of the grain deal was out of the question until the Russian package of the Istanbul agreements started to take effect, adding that the deal was still being implemented only regarding the supply of Ukrainian food.