Russia's military move into Ukraine "Incredible Act of Aggression"

Secretary of State John Kerry spoke about the situation in Ukraine on CBS's Face the Nation on March 2nd, exerpts:

QUESTION: We are joined now by Secretary of State John Kerry who is in Boston this morning. Mr. Secretary, thank you for being here. The Ukrainian prime minister says this morning that Russia’s actions amount to a declaration of war and he says, "We are on the brink of disaster." Do you agree with that?

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, it’s an incredible act of aggression. It is really a stunning, willful choice by President Putin to invade another country. Russia is in violation of the sovereignty of Ukraine. Russia is in violation of its international obligations. Russia is in violation of its obligations under the UN Charter, under the Helsinki Final Act. It’s a violation of its obligations under the 1994 Budapest agreement. You just don’t, in the 21^st century, behave in 19^th century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped up pretext. So it is a very serious moment.

But it’s serious not in the context, Bob, of Russia-U.S. It’s serious in terms of sort of the modern manner with which nations are going to resolve problems. There are all kinds of other options still available to Russia. There still are. President Obama wants to emphasize to the Russians that there is a right set of choices that can still be made to address any concerns they have about Crimea, about their citizens, but you don’t choose to invade a country in order to do that.

...I mean, if you have legitimate concerns about your citizens, go to the United Nations. Ask for observers. Engage the other country’s government. There are any number of choices available to Russia. Russia chose this brazen act of aggression and moved in with its forces on a completely trumped up set of pretext, claiming that people were threatened. And the fact is that that’s not the act of somebody who is strong. That’s the act of somebody who is acting out of weakness and out of a certain kind of desperation. 

QUESTION: Are we actually prepared, Mr. Secretary, to boycott the G-8 meeting there?

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, absolutely prepared to if this – if we can’t resolve it otherwise. But the preference of the President, myself, the entire Administration is to resolve this. We’re not trying to make this a battle between East and West. We don’t want a return to the Cold War...