A major natural gas pipeline supplying Russian energy to Europe ran dry Wednesday after Ukraine stopped Moscow’s six-decade supply in the hopes of hurting its invader financially.The planned move marks the end of an era in which many European countries kept warm using gas pumped by Russia — which was in turn accused of using this dependency to blackmail its Western neighbors after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022,

Russian gas exports via Soviet-era pipelines running through Ukraine came to a halt on New Year's Day, marking the end of decades of Moscow's dominance over Europe's energy markets.