A paradox of the international law currently being trampled by Russian president Vladimir Putin is that while it’s good and technically exists, in practice it’s unevenly enforced, to put it lightly. This is something that needs to be remedied if there’s any hope of punishing Putin for his latest war crimes, or at least, to punish and deter future war crimes by other leaders.

The world’s been shocked by the news coming out of the Ukrainian city of Bucha, outside of the capital Kiev, where hundreds of corpses, some of them mutilated, were found scattered throughout the streets and buried in a mass grave after Russian forces withdrew last week. Moscow has, unsurprisingly, denied the allegations, claiming instead that the entire thing was simply “staged.”

While we should of course wait for the results of an investigation before we make any sweeping conclusions, there’s copious evidence at this point that Russia’s claim is as ludicrous as it sounds. Satellite imagery shows at least some of the bodies found on Bucha’s streets were there as early as the middle of March, video shows Russian forces killing at least one Ukrainian civilian, and German intelligence officials recently said they intercepted conversations between Russian soldiers discussing the atrocities.