MOSCOW, (Reuters) – After virtual talks between both leaders on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a request for legal binding security guarantees to prevent the United States from expanding NATO.

Two hours of video calls with Biden saw Putin say that NATO is bolstering its military capabilities near Russia’s borders, and making “dangerous attempts to capture Ukrainian territory”, the Kremlin stated in a statement.

According to the Kremlin, Russia “is very interested in legal guarantees which will prevent NATO from expanding eastwards and the deployment offensive strike weapon systems in Russia’s neighboring states.”

Russian officials have stated that NATO’s increasing ties to Ukraine, and the potential for the alliance to deploy missiles against Russia was something it wouldn’t allow.

Putin said to his counterpart in the U.S. that he needed assurances that strike weapons would not be deployed near Russia.

The West raised concerns about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine during the talks and threatened “strong economic, and other” sanctions if Moscow started a war.

According to the Kremlin’s statement before Tuesday’s meeting it had said it was not expecting any breakthroughs. However, they denied any intent to attack Ukraine, and stated that their troop position is defensive.