> War crimes have never been anything more than a way the west can punish its enemies.

They're the way winners can punish their enemies.

If Germany and Japan had won WWII, US/British/Russian military and political leaders absolutely would've been on trial.

At the same time, agreements between peer countries to follow basic rules have generally held. Note that neither side in the current conflict is using dirty bombs, or dropping nerve gas or bioweapons on civilians, etc.

> War crimes have never been anything more than a way the west can punish its enemies

That's a fair point, the major change isn't that we suddenly started committing war crimes, it is that we've dropped all pretenses of trying to justify why what we did isn't one.