Western-given Artillery Is A Differentiator On The Battlefield, Ukraine's Governor Believes His Military Is Back In Reclaiming The Territory Occupied By Russia

The M777 Howitzer was one of the artillery pieces the West provided for Ukraine. (Wikimedia Commons/Jonathan Mallard)

JAKARTA - The Western-supplied artillery system has made a difference on the battlefield for Ukrainian troops, it is only a matter of time before winning back captured territory in the south, Governor Mykolaiv said.

Governor Vitaliy Kim, whose territory is partly occupied by Russia but remains only one of two retaining significant access to the Black Sea, told Reuters Ukrainian forces had succeeded in recent weeks in counterattacking in neighboring Kherson.

Asked when Western weapons would start to make a difference on the ground against Russian troops who invaded the country on February 24, he said: "It's already happened and we'll be (more) successful."

"We're talking about artillery. It's already working in our area," he said, although declining to say what specific Western artillery systems were at work there.

While Russia and Ukraine have focused most of their resources in recent weeks on the struggle for control of the eastern industrial region of the Donbas, the fate of Ukraine's remaining Black Sea coastline of Odesa and Mykolaiv is crucial to ensuring the country's economic future.

To make significant inroads in the country's south, such as retaking the Russian-held enclave of the Kherson Region over the Dnipro River, Ukraine will likely need more manpower, either by freeing troops in the east or through additional mobilization, Kim said.

And Kyiv realized that there was still a risk that Russia would carry out new attacks on the major cities of Mykolaiv and Zaporizhzhia.

"In the coming months, I think they have some chances to attack Zaporizhzhia and Mykolaiv. But for now we don't see a regrouping, big force to attack," Kim said.

While things are moving very slowly at the moment, "the situation could move very quickly," he concluded.