The following figure shows the contributions to the energy of H₂ due to the new interactions between the two H atoms that increase as the atoms approach the minimum separation, r_e.

As expected, the two electrons and the two protons in the nuclei each repel each other: E_e-e and E_N-N both increase as the nuclei come together (top graph). Each electron is attracted to the other nucleus, so E_e-n therefore decreases (middle graph). There is also a contribution to the energy from the electrons moving called the kinetic energy, E_kinetic, that is attractive at longer separations but becomes slightly positive (repulsive) near r_e (bottom graph).