Allied diplomacy was singularly ineffective. After welcoming the Revolution, England, France and the United States were unable to induce the Provisional Government to continue the war effectively. They were opposed to a peace between Russia or any part of it with the Central Powers. They were willing to cooperate with the Ukrainian Council or any other government that would continue the war. They were willing to recognize the Council as the de facto government of Ukraine and threatened it, if it made peace. They were willing to oppose the Bolsheviks, when they talked peace. On the other hand, the military missions that appeared in Kiev did not have the power to guarantee that they would continue to recognize the Council after the war and they most assuredly had no plans for supplying the Ukrainian army and making it able to oppose the Bolsheviks successfully, much less the Germans and Austro-Hungarians, if they decided to resume the offensive. What might have been done in Archangel or Vladivostok was impossible in Kiev, with Ukraine barred from access to Allied supplies and assistance by the Central Powers on the west and the Bolsheviks on the north and east. Ukraine was fighting a war on two fronts, and relations between the Germans and the Bolsheviks were such that peace between Germany and the Bolsheviks might result in Germany turning over Ukraine to the Bolsheviks as the price of peace. Again this threat, the words of small military missions were little defence, especially when the Ukrainian leaders knew of the widespread propaganda that had been directed against them abroad by imperial Russia for nearly four years. In the meanwhile conditions were becoming more critical in the country. The Council suffered from the same misconceptions that had ruined the Provisional Government. It was or felt itself unable to check barely concealed Bolshevik propaganda because of its interpretation of democracy. Its leaders, busied with negotiations with the Provisional Government, had not been able to use all their energies in building up a firm kernel of organization and in strengthening their own armed forces to a point where they could be sure of their unqualified support. Far too often resolutions that were adopted became dead letters almost as soon as they were passed. Regulations on the distribution of land, and others, were more honored in the breach than the observance. Despite the efforts of many of the members, it could hardly be said that many of the difficulties were being overcome.