The horrifying news from Ukraine continues in a steady drumbeat, worrisome but familiar, with no real signs of relief. Have we become desensitized? Are we gradually learning to tolerate the intolerable?

That basic disconnect poked into my consciousness one day last week when I asked Alexa (the voice on our Amazon Echo-Dot) for the morning news. She first served up an update of the Ukraine situation. The Russian advance, stalled outside of Kyiv, was now unleashing its full ferocity on the southern city of Mariupol, leveling apartment buildings, maternity ward, and even a clearly-marked children’s shelter. Thousands of Mariupol residents remained trapped in basements, without heat, food or water.

Then, before I had time to digest those surreal facts, Alexa moved on to the next big story of the day: our U.S. Senate voted to make Daylight Savings Time permanent! Hooray!

Alexa, STOP! Is there ANYTHING more important than a brutal invasion that might trigger a world war?

What is happening to the Ukrainian people, right now, is so barbaric and inhuman that it seems unreal, like the worst of the video games that we’ve been trying to ban because they are too violent for civilized society.

For those of us who live half a world away, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — a country we can’t find on a map, by people whose language and culture we don’t understand — feels like the stuff of novels or Netflix movies. But try imagining it closer to home. Mariupol is a city roughly the size of Columbia, South Carolina, and is in many respects comparable — a bustling city with traffic jams, restaurants, schools, and industry — home to half a million urban and suburban residents.

Or it was, until now. Today it is a burned-out wasteland of impassable streets, piles of rubble, skeletons of destroyed buildings, devastation everywhere, and it’s still under attack. Many are still trapped there, struggling just to stay alive.

What happened to those innocent days when we would hang on minute-by-minute updates on rescue operations for people in danger, like the 33 Chilean miners trapped in a collapsed copper mine 2,300 feet underground?

The thousands still stranded in Mariupol are not victims of an industrial accident or a natural disaster. Their survival doesn’t require a frantic round-the-clock drilling operation. No, all that would be needed for them to walk away safely would be for a supposedly civilized government to tell their troops to stand down — or for another civilized government (ours, for example) to step in forcefully and stop them.

But we’re not doing so. Leaders of the free Western world seem unwilling or unable to face the full gravity of the Ukraine situation. They badly misjudged Vladimir Putin’s capacity for evil and his designs on Eastern Europe, and having done so, they now seem inclined to treat it as an alarming international incident rather than the very possible first salvo of WWIII.

There is talk of negotiations and off-ramps for Russia. There may be room for that later, but first things first: stop the carnage. When someone breaks into your home and starts butchering your family, you’re not particularly interested in a negotiated settlement.

The big news last week was the president’s informal assertion that Putin is a war criminal. Joe Biden’s right — we already knew that — and pursuing that course with our international partners could be the best path to penalize Putin and Russia for their savage assault on defenseless noncombatants. But by then, the damage will be done. In effect, we’re standing back, compiling evidence so that when the barbarian finishes his barbarity, he can be held accountable.

In 1946, the Nuremburg trials meted out ultimate justice to the Nazis who carried out Adolph Hitler’s plan for a final solution; but they did not save a single Jewish life.

President Biden has so far kept the U.S. military out of direct conflict with Russia. That’s good, provided that it doesn’t simply kick the can down the road until a later, even more threatening action by Russia or others. But America’s timid aversion to military confrontation seems dominated by concern about provoking Putin — a person who convinces us daily that he needs no provocation to inflict harm.

We should take whatever action is needed, including military intervention, to stop the bleeding. Yes, that involves risk. But the greatest risk to us all is a nuclear-armed war criminal, acting with impunity because he is confident that no one will stand up to him.