Lavrov suggests Moscow could provide security guarantees to EU and NATO

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has suggested that Moscow can provide "security guarantees" to European Union and NATO countries.

As reported by TASS, a Kremlin-aligned Russian news agency, Lavrov claimed at the International Conference on Eurasian Security in the city of Minsk, Belarus, that Russia "does not have and has never had intentions to attack any of the current members of NATO and the European Union".

"We are willing to enshrine this position in future security guarantees for this part of Eurasia," Lavrov said.

However, the Russian foreign minister argued that EU leaders are moving "away from considering these future guarantees on a truly collective basis" because they are seeking "security guarantees not with Russia but against Russia".

Earlier, Lavrov stated that Moscow does not consider its aggression against Ukraine to be a violation of the Budapest Memorandum.

He also flatly rejected a US proposal to halt hostilities along the current line of demarcation.