Again the Peace Conference and the military missions showed themselves at their worst. They were entirely unable to discover whom to fight or whom to support. At the moment there were really no organized armies in the field. There were merely bands larger or smaller, owing vague allegiance to some cause and led by commissars, generals or atamans, largely self-appointed and often in absolute disagreement with other bands fighting on the same side. Frequently military missions of the same countries were present at the front or behind the lines of groups that were fighting one another. They were giving contrary directives and interfering, doling out supplies and unable to control their use. Under such conditions Ukraine reverted in large part to a condition similar to that in the days of the Ruin of the seventeenth century. The country was filled with independent atamans like Makhno, who refused to acknowledge any superior command but supported and attacked almost every one in turn. These leaders set up their control over small areas and proved unable to work out a plan of cooperation in conjunction with or in defiance of the Direktoria, but in large part their chaos in the beginning was no worse than the condition of their rivals. In the meanwhile, in the south of Ukraine the international confusion was reaching a new high. On December 18, 1918, a French army of some 12,000 men had landed in Odesa to maintain order and assist the “healthy” portions of the population to obtain control. Their first action was to expel the Ukrainian forces from the city and appoint a White Russian as the governor. Then, with a miscellaneous force of all nationalities, the French endeavored to clear the neighborhood and finally invoked the aid of a German division which had been unable to leave because the followers of Petlyura were in control of the surrounding country. The farce and the tragedy continued until Ataman Gregoryev, who had formerly served with Petlyura, went over to the Bolsheviks and maintained himself in the neighborhood as a nuisance. Incidentally, he later broke again with them and fought as a Ukrainian. Disorders broke out in the French forces and they withdrew April 6, 1919. Odesa was entered by a Bolshevik army of less than 2,000 men and the large quantity of military stores there fell into their hands. Soon after, the other Black Sea ports were taken by the Bolsheviks with as small or smaller forces.