The White House views Russia’s latest moves as the beginning of an “invasion” of Ukraine, U.S. Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Jonathan Feiner said, Politico reports.

“We think this is, yes, the beginning of an invasion, Russia’s latest invasion of Ukraine,” Feiner told CNN.

Russia will not deploy troops to the Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko has said. According to him, the agreements signed with the republics provide for military assistance, but there is no need to speculate on this topic: “No one is going to introduce anything anywhere for the time being.