Vladimir Putin is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes. Just a few weeks ago, writing something like this might have seemed crazy, reserved for the best show writers of the moment. But there are situations in which, unfortunately, reality is stranger than fiction.

At the beginning of Russia’s open invasion of Ukraine, there were only a handful of people deigning to share reliable information from the center of what was happening. I will not name everyone, but among them I would like to single out a British-Lebanese journalist Oz KaterjiWhose Twitter feed I woke up to every morning during those terrible early days of the invasion.

“Kyiv stands, we are still here.” The hope of a man who has seen his world crumble several times, from the Middle East to the post-communist and post-Soviet worlds, was contagious in the darkest of times, when all seemed lost. But Kyiv resisted, resists and will resist.

And over time, this group of brave people grew, while their communities grew in networks, and their voice sounded farther and farther. Not only the voice of those who follow and analyze conflicts, diplomats, journalists, political scientists or international students, but also the voice of people who, in principle, have nothing to do with this world.

On the other hand, we saw a counter-current or counter-culture made up of individuals who drank from every official statement of the Russian embassies and their “independent” agencies, from the accounts of hundreds and tens of thousands of followers who spread hoaxes and grotesque distortions of reality in the style of mirrors in Callejon del Gato” of Valle Inclan.

We have seen everything from “news” translated using Google translate, copied from far-right anti-Semitic websites and spread by “leftist” accounts followed by geopolitical gurus, to anti-quarantine demonstrations in the Netherlands that someone is trying to impersonate. how Poland and the protesting people are allegedly drawn into the war in Ukraine.

One side of social media has tried to warn of reality, while the other has tried to mask it with what is already probably the biggest disinformation and propaganda operation in human history. Meanwhile, those who are trying to find a “balance” in everything do not want to think that some can be so “good” and others so “bad.”

All war crimes can and should be singled out in the hope that one day justice will completely defeat geopolitical reports.

But there are situations in which balance has nothing to do with it and in which there are actors who commit acts so monstrous that they eliminate or should eliminate the collective conscience of mankind. And we’re going to clarify some concepts: The International Criminal Court is not a body in the service of the US, NATO or the EU, and is not a Western institution.

That the court is in The Hague is mainly due to the fact that, fortunately, Western Europe has learned the lesson not to destroy itself and not commit crimes on its territory, at exorbitant prices, and that it should never go back to repeat. The ICC operates with scrupulous respect for the “law of war” and only acts when the facts are so serious as to merit its attention and/or affect all of humanity.

Those who are intoxicated by the dark side of networks and their previous prejudices about the behavior of certain forces are unlikely to understand that what Russia has done in Ukraine, the basis for a mandate against Putin is only a preliminary promotion of interest in public opinion” is of such magnitude that their cannot be ignored.

Is it possible and necessary to single out all war crimes in the hope that one day justice will completely defeat geopolitical reports? Of course, all war crimes must be prosecuted and punished on the basis of facts, but some of them are so egregious that they disturb the collective consciousness of mankind and cannot be ignored.

Without a military defeat, the responsibility of a great power is negligible.

War rapes, civilian bombings, kidnappings, extrajudicial killings, and many other crimes in NATO and US operations have occurred and will continue to occur because violence is the lifeblood of war, and when you have the power to take or destroy life, some people will not hesitate to abuse this power or use it in such a way that they would rather harm an innocent than risk their lives.

But these crimes were not the systematic crimes that were supported, directed, applauded, embellished and gleefully commented on television talk shows. No, I feel sorry for everyone who wants to maintain a “balanced” view of any armed conflict. The crimes that Russia is almost certainly committing are the worst committed by a great power since 1945.

The crimes that their network deniers are accomplices to, sometimes criminal, as it is in almost the entire EU, but shameful not in the US, but in any case before that collective conscience, before which they will be held accountable for their actions.

And those who sincerely believe in justice and in the responsibility to punish, prevent and correct, as far as possible, war crimes, should call for a decisive defeat of Russia on the battlefield, because, as history shows, without this, the responsibility of a great force is zero.

Victor Vasilescu He has a degree in law and political science, and a master’s degree in international relations-African studies.