Ukraine retakes more territory in east amid new Russian attacks

LVIV, Ukraine — Ukraine pressed its counteroffensive against Russian troops Wednesday, pushing them back from the northeastern city of Kharkiv in what observers say could bring a new phase to the conflict even as U.S intelligence officials warned that Moscow was preparing for a protracted war.

The Ukrainian military said it was able to claw back a constellation of settlements north of Kharkiv, driving back Russian troops to less than a dozen miles from the Russian border.

The move, said Kharkiv regional Gov. Oleh Sinegubov, reduces pressure on Kharkiv city, Ukraine’s second-largest and a primary target of the Russian invasion since the beginning of the war.

“The occupiers had even less opportunity to fire on the regional center,” Sinegubov said on his channel on the Telegram messaging app Wednesday.

In his nightly address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy lauded his troops’ advance, saying that they demonstrated “superhuman strength.” But he cautioned his compatriots not to “spread excessive emotions” or expect a quick victory.

“It is not necessary to create such an atmosphere of specific moral pressure, when certain victories are expected weekly and even daily,” he said.

Zelenskyy’s words appeared to dovetail with the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency director’s characterization of the conflict as deadlocked.

“The Russians aren’t winning, and the Ukrainians aren’t winning, and we’re at a bit of a stalemate here,” Lt. Gen. Scott D. Berrier told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, shortly before the House resoundingly approved $40 billion in additional weapons and other aid for Kyiv.

Ukrainian forces’ reported breakthrough near Kharkiv comes as fighting rages in other parts of the country, including around Zmiinyi Island, also known as Snake Island, an outcrop in the Black Sea roughly 90 miles south of the coastal city of Odesa. Ukrainian forces struck Russian air defenses and resupply vessels, according to a British Defense Ministry intelligence update Wednesday.

The island gained outsize symbolic importance early in the war, when Ukrainian soldiers stationed in a garrison there rebuffed a Russian warship’s demand to surrender with a colorful rejoinder.

The British Defense Ministry said that if Moscow can consolidate its position on the island with enhanced defenses, the outcrop could be used to “dominate the northwestern Black Sea.”