diff --git a/plugins/inventory/proxmox.py b/plugins/inventory/proxmox.py
index 555ab45..929a3e3 100644
--- a/plugins/inventory/proxmox.py
+++ b/plugins/inventory/proxmox.py
@@ -99,13 +99,13 @@ import json
 import re
 import socket
 from collections import defaultdict
-from distutils.version import LooseVersion
 
 from ansible.errors import AnsibleError
 from ansible.module_utils._text import to_native
 from ansible.module_utils.parsing.convert_bool import boolean
 from ansible.module_utils.six import iteritems
 from ansible.plugins.inventory import BaseInventoryPlugin
+from ansible_collections.xoxys.general.plugins.module_utils.version import LooseVersion
 
 try:
     from proxmoxer import ProxmoxAPI
diff --git a/plugins/module_utils/version.py b/plugins/module_utils/version.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7334182
--- /dev/null
+++ b/plugins/module_utils/version.py
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+
+# Copyright (c) 2021, Felix Fontein <felix@fontein.de>
+# GNU General Public License v3.0+ (see LICENSES/GPL-3.0-or-later.txt or https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.txt)
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-3.0-or-later
+"""Provide version object to compare version numbers."""
+
+from __future__ import absolute_import, division, print_function
+
+__metaclass__ = type
+
+from ansible.module_utils.six import raise_from
+
+try:
+    from ansible.module_utils.compat.version import LooseVersion
+except ImportError:
+    try:
+        from distutils.version import LooseVersion  # noqa: F401, pylint: disable=unused-import
+    except ImportError as exc:
+        msg = (
+            "To use this plugin or module with ansible-core 2.11, you need to use Python < 3.12 "
+            "with distutils.version present"
+        )
+        raise_from(ImportError(msg), exc)
diff --git a/plugins/modules/iptables_raw.py b/plugins/modules/iptables_raw.py
index 5f0b160..255e473 100644
--- a/plugins/modules/iptables_raw.py
+++ b/plugins/modules/iptables_raw.py
@@ -216,6 +216,7 @@ from collections import defaultdict
 
 from ansible.module_utils.basic import AnsibleModule
 from ansible.module_utils.basic import json
+from ansible_collections.xoxys.general.plugins.module_utils.version import LooseVersion
 
 
 # Genereates a diff dictionary from an old and new table dump.
@@ -357,7 +358,6 @@ class Iptables:
 
     # Checks if iptables is installed and if we have a correct version.
     def _check_compatibility(self):
-        from distutils.version import StrictVersion
         cmd = [self.bins['iptables'], '--version']
         rc, stdout, stderr = Iptables.module.run_command(cmd, check_rc=False)
         if rc == 0:
@@ -366,7 +366,7 @@ class Iptables:
                 version = result.group(1)
                 # CentOS 5 ip6tables (v1.3.x) doesn't support comments,
                 # which means it cannot be used with this module.
-                if StrictVersion(version) < StrictVersion('1.4'):
+                if LooseVersion(version) < LooseVersion('1.4'):
                     Iptables.module.fail_json(
                         msg="This module isn't compatible with ip6tables versions older than 1.4.x"
                     )
diff --git a/plugins/modules/proxmox_kvm.py b/plugins/modules/proxmox_kvm.py
index 268e21c..1c73987 100644
--- a/plugins/modules/proxmox_kvm.py
+++ b/plugins/modules/proxmox_kvm.py
@@ -813,9 +813,9 @@ import string
 import time
 import traceback
 from collections import defaultdict
-from distutils.version import LooseVersion
 
 from ansible.module_utils.six.moves.urllib.parse import quote
+from ansible_collections.xoxys.general.plugins.module_utils.version import LooseVersion
 
 try:
     from proxmoxer import ProxmoxAPI
diff --git a/tests/unit/plugins/inventory/test_proxmox.py b/tests/unit/plugins/inventory/test_proxmox.py
index 9696aed..3beb0b3 100644
--- a/tests/unit/plugins/inventory/test_proxmox.py
+++ b/tests/unit/plugins/inventory/test_proxmox.py
@@ -10,7 +10,6 @@ import pytest
 
 proxmox = pytest.importorskip("proxmoxer")
 
-from ansible.errors import AnsibleError, AnsibleParserError  # noqa
 from plugins.inventory.proxmox import InventoryModule