UNITED NATIONS, September 22. /TASS/. Progress on the grain deal is possible only if Russia’s conditions are met, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday.

"Our position is well known and our colleagues in the United Nations are aware of it. So, we can speak about any progress only from the point of view of conditions we spoke about, including at the level of the president," he said, commenting on Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s talks with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on issues of exports of Russian food and fertilizers.

On July 17, Russia refused to continue its participation in the grain deal, which was reached a year ago to ensure the safe export of Ukrainian grain across the Black Sea. The deal also provided for creating conditions for exporting crops and fertilizers from Russia. Moscow explained its withdrawal from the deal by the non-implementation of the part of the agreement related to the export of Russian products to the global market.

Apart from that, Russian President Vladimir Putin repeatedly pointed to the fact that most of the grain from Ukraine had been shipped to European countries whereas under the deal, it was to go to the poorest countries. Nevertheless, Moscow said that it was ready to resume its participation in the deal only when all obligations concerning Russia were implemented.