How Israel Inspired the Ukrainian Offensive

Early in the Yom Kippur War, then-Israeli general Ariel Sharon decided that his priority should be to cross the Suez Canal into Egypt, even before Israeli forces had pushed the Egyptian army out of the Israeli bases they had captured in the Sinai Peninsula. He had multiple goals for this drive into enemy territory, which were very much in keeping with longstanding IDF doctrine: surrounding the Egyptians, putting them on the defensive, and making their leaders fear that they could suffer worse results than simply a failed invasion of Israel.