The photos from Ukraine are horrifying. Is any justice for Putin possible?

You can read about the numbers of dead people in Bucha, Ukraine. You can hear accounts of Russia shelling civilian targets. But until you see the photos of streets strewed with bodies, some partially buried in the rubble and some with hands bound with bright white cloth, you cannot comprehend the enormity of the evil taking place in Ukraine. The journalists and photographers who are documenting what would be unimaginable if not for their work deserve enormous gratitude. Without them, these horrors would be swept aside or fade with the passage of time.

President Biden, returning to the White House on Monday, repeated his claim that Russian President Vladimir Putin is “a war criminal” and “brutal.” He told the reporters, “You saw what happened in Bucha.” He went a step further, demanding a war crimes trial.

The images underscore the moral force of Biden’s declaration in Poland last month about Putin: “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.” Even his administration’s cringeworthy attempts to walk back the statement acknowledged that Putin “cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region.”