Did the US tip the scales?
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For the past several months, the conflict has ground on in the east and the south with neither side seemingly able to break the stalemate.
But, behind the scenes, Ukraine was quietly amassing billions of dollars' worth of foreign military aid and learning how to use it.
Since the war began on February 24, the United States alone has injected some $US14.5 billion ($21.7 billion) into the war, including providing HIMARS, a type of powerful long-range rocket launcher.
The munitions for the GPS-guided systems can strike targets with precision from more than 60 kilometres away.
By some accounts, the five-tonne HIMARS trucks, the first of which arrived in June, are having an outsized impact on the battlefield because they allow the Ukrainians to hit targets deep behind enemy lines.
But Dr Miron argued US intelligence probably played a weightier role.
"I think the importance of HIMARS was basically, in a tactical sense, it created some parity in terms of artillery," she said.
"However, I don't think it was the catalyst of change in this war."
It now seems likely the two-pronged offensive capturing the east while eyes were on the south was always the plan.
"The Ukrainians are conducting operations that are forcing the Russians to make decisions on the battlefield about where they're going to apply their resources, and how," a senior US military official said during a recent Pentagon briefing.
"So, what we've seen is the Ukrainians applying the capabilities that they have, [including] those that have been provided by the US and our allies
in order to again change the dynamics on the battlefield."
Taras Berezovets, a former Ukrainian national security adviser turned special forces press officer, went so far as to label the tactic a "big special disinformation operation".
"[Russia] thought it would be in the south and moved their equipment," he told the Guardian.
"Then, instead of the south, the offensive happened where they least expected, and this caused them to panic and flee."
