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Hello and welcome to Spectator Out Loud.

Each week we ask a few of our writers to read their piece from the magazine aloud.

I'm Max Jeffrey.

On today's episode, Svetlana Monetz says that Zelensky needs to be honest about the progress of Ukraine's counter-offensive.

It just isn't living up to the hype.

Sean Thomas explains why he likes terrible towns.

Show him a poor, benighted, sad, remote, homicidal town.

That's his kind of place. And finally, Angus Colwell defends London's rituals. First up, Svetlana Monets.

Happy New Year, the year of our victory, said Volodymer Zelensky on 1st of January.

After the liberation of the Harcif region and Herzogun, Ukrainians entered the

ninth year of the war with hope that they could win. Light will always prevail over darkness,

Zelensky likes to say. But now the counteroffensive is nearly over, having made crushingly

few gains. With Western support waning, Kiev needs to be honest about about how the war is going and what it will take to turn the tide.

After Zelensky, the most popular figure in Ukraine is Valer Zaluzni, commander-in-chief of the military, and he has a very different message.

Fighting has hit a stalemate, he wrote in The Economist.

A beautiful breakthrough is not imminent, and Ukraine should prepare for a long trench war,

requiring huge resources to make small gains.

Weapons do arrive, but too few and too late.

...