On Wednesday, Ukrainian forces reported battlefield successes in a counterattack that could herald a shift in the war’s momentum, while Kyiv shut down gas flows on a conduit through Russian-controlled territory, raising the threat of a European energy crisis.

The thump of near constant artillery and the swoosh of multiple rocket launchers could be heard in Vilhivka, a village east of Kharkiv held by Ukrainian forces, from fighting at the front, now pushed substantially further east, where Ukraine has been trying to capture the banks of the Donets river and threaten Russian supply lines on the far side.

Ukrainian forces were within a few kilometers of the Russian border in the Kharkiv region on Wednesday morning, according to a Ukrainian military source.

After what appeared to be the fastest advances since April, when Ukraine pushed Russian forces back from Kyiv and the country’s north, Ukrainian forces appeared to be in control of the village of Rubizhne, on the banks of the Donets.

“It’s burned out, like all Russian tanks,” a Ukrainian soldier said outside the settlement, next to the remnants of one Russian tank. “The anti-tank weaponry are quite helpful.”

Russian forces were “gradually being pushed out of Kharkiv,” according to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office, though Kyiv has so yet acknowledged few details of the progress in the region, preferring to be cautious.

According to Zelenskiy, the victories have pushed the second-largest city, which has been under continual assault since the beginning of the war, beyond the range of Russian fire, but he warned Ukrainians not to get their hopes up just yet.

In a nocturnal video speech, he stated, “We should not create an atmosphere of extreme moral pressure, where triumphs are anticipated monthly, even daily.”

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