Ukraine urges civilians to flee the occupied south ahead of a promised counteroffensive.

A top Ukrainian government official has made an urgent plea for hundreds of thousands of people living in Russian-occupied parts of southern Ukraine to evacuate in advance of a potential Ukrainian counteroffensive, working to prepare the public for a bloody struggle on another front even as Russia makes steady gains in fierce and costly battles in the east.

In trying to take back territory in the south, Ukrainian officials are facing deep challenges. Russia has been dug in for months in parts of the region, complicating evacuation routes for civilians and forcing Kyiv to decide how much damage it is willing to inflict on towns and cities that — even if an eventual counteroffensive is successful — it would have to rebuild.

“Please, go, because our Army will definitely de-occupy these lands,” said Iryna Vereshchuk, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister. In one sign of the dilemmas facing Ukraine, she indicated that civilians might first have to flee to Crimea, which was seized by Russia in 2014 and has been a key staging ground for Moscow’s invasion.

Russian forces have intensified searches at checkpoints in the region and are preventing civilians from traveling to Ukrainian-controlled areas. The safest escape route for many of the 500,000 people still estimated to be living in the Kherson region may be to head south to Crimea, she said.

“We know that today it is almost the only humanitarian corridor available, if it can be called that, that can be used to leave,” Ms. Vereshchuk said at a news conference on Monday. “So, if possible, get out of there, especially if you have children.”

From Crimea, she urged people to make their way to another country where they can reach out to the local Ukrainian consulate. She did not elaborate on how Ukrainians would be able to leave from Crimea.

While it is not clear when or if Ukraine will launch a broad offensive, it has been staging limited counterattacks that have put the Russians on the defensive. Ukrainians are now battling Russian forces trying to hold defensive lines less than 12 miles from the city of Kherson — the only regional capital to fall to Russian forces since the Feb. 24 invasion.

The Russians have used indiscriminate, heavy bombardments to level whole towns and villages before infantry troops move in to claim the ruins. But like other towns and cities that fell quickly in the first days of the war, Kherson was spared the kind of widespread destruction that has defined the Russian advance.

Now the Ukrainians are wrestling with complicated calculations in the fight to reclaim lost lands.

Ukrainian officials have stressed how important it is to keep the local population on their side — a task that may be complicated after months of Russian occupation and propaganda. The Russian Ministry of Defense said on Tuesday that it had repaired the last of seven television towers in the Kherson region to broadcast Russian channels.

The Ukrainian military also hopes to use local residents behind enemy lines as a force multiplier by staging sabotage operations, scouting enemy targets and generally creating a hostile environment for occupation forces.

A picture taken during a media tour organized by the Russian Army shows a Russian servicemen standing guard near the Dnipro River in Kherson last month. Russian forces have been in control of the city since the early days of the war. Credit…Sergei Ilnitsky/EPA, via Shutterstock

That could include attacks like one over the weekend on three Russian soldiers as they sat at a waterfront cafe in Kherson. Two were killed and a third had to be transported to a hospital in Crimea for treatment after they came under attack by an unidentified gunman, according to the Ukrainian military southern command.

Ukraine would also need to assess how much damage it is willing to inflict in any effort to retake Kherson, since, if it succeeds, it would fall on Kyiv to rebuild. “If the city is demolished, then why liberate it?” asked Oleksandr Samoilenko, a Kherson official.

But the Russians have had months to fortify their positions.

“It will be very, very difficult to open a humanitarian corridor when there are children there,” Ms. Vereshchuk said. “It was difficult in Mariupol, and in the Kherson region it will be even harder.”

Military analysts have cautioned that it could most likely be several weeks before the Ukrainians get more powerful weapons and ammunition needed to wage a wide offensive in the south. But Ukrainian forces continued to set the stage for a broad assault.

The Ukrainian military’s southern command said on Tuesday that Russia was being forced to “resort to desperate means” to hold onto its outer defensive ring, including launching a “massive missile strike.”

There were no reported casualties and the region’s air defense systems limited the damage, according to the military.

A former US general compared back-and-forth fighting between Russia and Ukraine to a boxing match, as the war in the eastern European country nears the four-month mark.  

“It’s a heavyweight boxing match,” Mark Hertling, the former top commander of the US Army forces in Europe, wrote in a Twitter thread late Monday night. “In 2 months of fighting, there has not yet been a knockout blow. It will come, as [Russian] forces become more depleted.”

Hertling said fighting between the two sides in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region is like a “punch-counterpunch” fight, where artillery exchanges, counterattacks, and moving frontlines makes progress hard to come by. 

“The Donbas fight has been a slugfest for over 2 months, so an expectation would be advancement on one side or the other,” Hertling said. “That’s not happened.”

Hertling said that while both Russia and Ukraine continue to face casualties — hundreds of troops are reportedly killed every day — Ukraine can, for now, enjoy the advantage of greater “will and morale.”

Ukraine has pleaded with Western countries to send more weapons deliveries after admitting it is outmatched by Russian artillery on the battlefield. Hertling said he expects Ukraine’s resources to grow as the country obtains and benefits from new equipment.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces pivoted their invasion to focus on eastern Ukraine after Russian forces failed to capture the capital city Kyiv in the weeks following the unprovoked late-February invasion.

The fight in eastern Ukraine has since become a slow-moving and bloody affair, with many — including NATO’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg — predicting that the war could drag on for years.  

Montrose was once Houston’s epicenter of LGBTQ+ culture and political organization and the home of the Houston Pride Parade.

The celebration has since moved downtown, the gayborhood’s counterculture vibe encroached on by million-dollar townhomes, and while some remain—such as Eagle and Ripcord—many of Montrose’s storied gay bars are now shuttered.

We take a look a handful of queer icons and what stands in their place today.

A detail of one of the fragments reclaimed from Mary’s… Naturally from a 2021 exhibit at the Contemporary Arts Museum of Houston. During the AIDS crisis, patrons affixed photographs of friends to the surface of the bar.

Molly Glentzer / Houston Chronicle

Then: Chances

Chances opened in 1994 at 1100 Westheimer as a bar that catered to lesbians in particular, and others in the LGBTQ community. Owner Marlene Beago hosted regular fundraisers at the bar. Flyers collected by Houston LGBT History show that there was always live music at Chances, which had separate rooms throughout the venue, including The Barn and The G-Spot.

When Chances closed in 2010, the Houston Press reported that it would become “a high-end restaurant, with a superstar chef that [the property owners] are keeping under wraps for now.”

Now: Chances became a series of restaurants by Chris Shepherd—Underbelly, Hay Merchant and Georgia James—which are now all closed. The land has been sold to a Dallas-based company, but there’s no word yet on a new leasee.

The exterior of Georgia James, now also closed.

Yelp/Fox E

Then: EJ’s Bar

EJ’s Bar was around for 40 years, from 1974 to 2014, first on Richmond Avenue and then on Ralph Street just off Westheimer. According to Houston LGBT History, the original owners also operated Inside/Outside, which is now Present Company. Both bars were packed with entertainment from jock strap contests to drag performances by Rainbo de Klown.

The last owner of EJ’s posted a long message to the bar’s Facebook page explaining the circumstances of the closure, concluding with: “While I believe there will always be a need for LGBT bars, the writing is on the wall for the need for so many LGBT bars. This is the price we pay for greater acceptance in the mainstream community, but our community has found other ways to connect and support each other, and that is something to celebrate.”

Now: The EJ’s space is currently taken up by La Grange, a Tex-Mex restaurant and cocktail bar with a huge patio. La Grange still hosts drag shows and the occasional fundraiser for LGBTQ causes.

Parade goers crowd the sidewalk and roof of Mary’s, a landmark gay bar in Houston’s Montrose neighborhood.

Ben DeSoto/Houston Chronicle

Then: Mary’s, Naturally

Mary’s was arguably the most iconic of Houston’s gay bars. Previously called Tommy’s Lounge, Joe and Mike Anthony bought the bar around 1970, according to Houston LGBT History, and renamed it Mary’s. It was the oldest gay bar in Houston and the second oldest in Texas, its pink brick building the host of many parties, especially during the annual Pride Parade. Mary’s also had murals depicting regular customers and the bar cat, Mr. Balls.

During the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, ashes of beloved bargoers and community members were scattered in the backyard garden. Mary’s closed in 2009 and that memorial area is now a parking lot.

Now: Blacksmith, a trendy coffee shop that slings cortados and chai lattes, stands where Mary’s once was. See if you can spot the pink triangle on Blacksmith’s floor, a nod to the bar.

Montrose Mining Company closed in 2016 to make way for Postino Montrose.

courtesy photo

Then: Montrose Mining Company

When EJ’s closed, the crown of oldest Houston gay bar went to Montrose Mining Company, which opened in 1978 at 805 Pacific Street. It had been cruise bar Uncle Charlie’s before that. A grand opening flyer and others materials published in Houston LBGT History tout Montrose Mining Company touts as a bar “for the man’s man.” The venue’s Pride Parade float appeared to be, at least for some years, a tractor with the message “proud to be serving Houston’s hot men.”

In 2016, Montrose Mining Company closed and was sold to developer Fred Sharifi of SFT Investments.

Now: Montrose Mining is now Postino Montrose, a local wine bar chain that has a few locations around Houston. There is a wall inside the restaurant dedicated to old photos and flyers of the gay bars that came before.

A Russian colonel has died in a helicopter crash after it was hit by a Ukrainian missile.

Lieutenant colonel Sergey Gundorov, 51, is said to be the 55th Russian officer of that rank to be killed since president Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

His military helicopter was struck by a portable surface-to-air missile while flying near Volnovakha in the Donbas. The Mi-35 hit the ground before cartwheeling over a strip of woodland and then exploding in a field.

Video footage also showed a second helicopter being targeted but escaping after firing decoy flares.

Lieutenant colonel Gundorov had won three Orders of Courage. Online tributes to the married dad-of-two, who died last Thursday but whose loss has only just been revealed, included one from his teenage son Ilya who posted: ‘Love you Dad.’

The deaths of two other colonels were announced on the same day last week – colonel Sergei Krasnikov, 56, who had volunteered to rejoin the forces to fight in Ukraine, and colonel Sergei Postnov, who was in his 40s.

The Kremlin is also thought to have lost at least 11 generals.

Overall, Russian deaths in the conflict are believed to be above 30,000. However, some estimates have put the figure closer to 50,000.

Meanwhile, Russian troops have seized control of a key battleground in Severodonetsk, as Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky warned Moscow would likely escalate attacks in the days to come.

The town of Toshkivka, on the Kyiv-held western bank of the Siverskyi Donets river fell into Russian hands as EU leaders flew to Ukraine to support its bid to join its 27-nation bloc.

The Kremlin has also captured Metyolkine, a village near Severodonetsk which has become the front line of the war in recent weeks.

In his latest address via video, Mr Zelensky warned Ukrainians: ‘We should expect from Russia an intensification of hostile activities. We are ready.’

He also repeated his plea for Western allies to send more weapons to fend off the Russian onslaught.

‘We need your support. This is a matter of life or death,’ he said.

Ukraine now controls just one area of Severodonetsk, the Azot chemical plant where fighters and about 500 civilians are taking shelter.

Luhansk governor Serhiy Haidai said the situation in the city was ‘very difficult’:
‘It’s hell there. Everything is engulfed in fire. The shelling doesn’t stop.’

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Russia also continues to bombard key sites in Kharkiv, with the Saltiv tram depot destroyed in the latest attack.

But, here, the Ministry of Defence insisted the war was not going all Russia’s way. Moscow’s ground troops are said to be exhausted and poor air support is stalling their advance into north and eastern Ukraine.

Meanwhile, international concern remains focused on trying to restore Ukrainian exports of food, halted by a Russian blockade of its ports.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

The Soviet-German War of 1941–1945 was the most extensive intelligence/counterintelligence war in modern history, involving the capture, torture, deportation, execution, and doubling of tens of thousands of agents—most of them Soviet citizens. While Russian armies fought furiously to defeat the Wehrmacht, Stalins security services waged an equally ruthless secret war against Hitlers spies, as well as against the Soviet population. For the first time, Robert Stephan now combines declassified U.S. intelligence documents, captured German records, and Russian sources, including a top-secret Soviet history of its intelligence and security services, to reveal the magnitude and scope of the brutal but sophisticated Soviet counterintelligence war against Nazi Germany.

Employing as many as 150,000 trained agents across a 2,400-mile front, the Soviets neutralized the majority of the more than 40,000 German agents deployed against them. As Stephan shows, their combination of Soviet military deception operations and State Securitys defeat of the Abwehrs human intelligence effort had devastating consequences for the German Army in every major battle against the Red army, including Moscow, Stalingrad, Kursk, the Belorussian offensive, and the Vistula-Oder operation.

“A significant book that clearly shows the importance and vastness of the clandestine intelligence-counterintelligence war on the Eastern Front. . . . Stephans thorough and imaginative research, and his patient analysis and interpretation of the documents and memoirs he has unearthed, set a standard that other historians working on intelligence should emulate. ”

—American Historical Review

“An indispensable account of this dimension of the war on the Eastern Front, and a valuable primer for all those who wish to understand how to conduct intelligence and counterintelligence operations. Needless to say this topic is of immense relevance to American forces and intelligence agencies today.”

—Parameters

See all reviews…

Simultaneously, Soviet State Security continued to penetrate the worlds major intelligence services including those of its allies, terrorize its own citizens to prevent spying, desertion, and real or perceived opposition to the regime, and run millions of informants, making the USSR a vast prison covering one sixth of the worlds surface.

Stephan discusses all facets of the Soviet counterintelligence effort, including the major Soviet radio games used to mislead the Germans—operations Monastery, Berezino, and those that defeated Himmlers Operation Zeppelin. He also gives the most comprehensive account to date of the Abwehrs infamous agent Max, whose organization allegedly ran an entire network of agents inside the USSR, and reveals the reasons for Germanys catastrophic under-estimation of Soviet forces by more than one million men during their 1944 summer offensive in Belorussia.

Richly detailed and epic in scope, Stalins Secret War opens up a previously hidden dimension of World War II.

War in Ukraine

A man stands outside a damaged residential building following recent shelling in the city of Donetsk, Ukraine on June 20, 2022. © Alexander Ermochenko, Reuters

Ukraine acknowledged difficulties in fighting in its east as Russian forces captured territory and intensified pressure on two cities ahead of an EU summit this week expected to welcome Kyiv’s bid to join the bloc. Follow FRANCE 24’s liveblog for all the latest developments. All times Paris time (GMT+2).