Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested a one-and-a-half-day truce in the Russo-Ukrainian war, but the Ukrainian leadership and their Western allies do not want any part of it, considering Moscow’s proposal a sham. To what extent the guns on the front will die down until Saturday evening is highly questionable.

Ukrainians fire as much artillery ammunition in two days as US munitions factories produce in a month—and even so, they achieve only one-sixth or one-seventh the density of fire of the Russian artillery. The question is where the West will draw the line when it comes to feeding the insatiable Ukrainian war machine.

Paradoxically, Communist Béla Kun and the contemporary nationalist racists had more in common in terms of their views than the Communist leader had with the social-democratic and the left-leaning bourgeois émigrés.

Ukraine used to celebrate Orthodox Christmas Day on 7 January, but as a cultural shift away from Russia, Ukrainians are increasingly keen on celebrating Christmas in December.