November 8, 2024: The Russian invasion and the methods Ukraine developed and used to deal with it had some interesting side effects. For example, Ukraine received a lot of useful advice from Israel or just by watching the Israeli military in action. The lessons learned from the Israelis were visible when Ukrainian forces made their incursion into Russia on August 2nd. This was not just a surprise to the Russian, but also a deception. Ukrainian forces had moved to the border several times before the attack and then withdrawn. This is called repetition deception and, unless the enemy is familiar with this technique and on the lookout for it, they fall for it. In 1973 the Egyptians used it against Israeli forces and were able to carry out a surprise attack that was costly for the Israelis.

For the August 2nd operation, the Ukrainian deception caused Russia to withdraw 20 battalions worth of troops from eastern Ukraine to meet the phony Ukrainian threat in Kursk province. This snarled Russian rail traffic and delivery of supplies for six weeks over an area extending from Kherson south to the Black Sea coast, then east to Rostov and finally north to Kursk.

Another factor in remembering these tactics and how to implement this is that there has long been a lot of family and cultural connections between Ukraine and Israel. Currently there are about 40,000 Jews living in Ukraine and twice as many in Russia. Both Ukrainian and Russian Jews are moving to Israel as quickly as they can. This is not due to the war in Ukraine, but because the economic situation in Ukraine and Russia is less attractive than in Israel. There is still lingering antisemitism in Russia and to a lesser extent in Ukraine. Since 2022, the war in Ukraine has put military age Jewish men in both countries at risk of getting involved in the war. There are military risks in Israel, but the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) is much more adept at handling them.

This is where military aid to Ukraine comes in. Israel has not provided Ukraine with weapons. Instead Israel has sent a lot of aid for Ukrainian civilians and useful military advice. This is often delivered by Ukrainian Jews with family or other connections with Israel.

Since its founding in 1948, about a third of the foreign Jews moving to Israel were from the former Soviet Union. Most of those Jews came from the current Russian Federation and Ukraine. When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 there were about 40,000 Jews in Ukraine and 300,000 or more Ukrainians who had Jewish ancestors but no longer identified as Jews. There are over 30,000 Ukrainian Jews living in Israel and more are arriving each year from Russia and Ukraine.

Ukrainians admire the achievements of Israelis against their many enemies. Israeli and Ukrainian Jews are bringing details of Israeli military strategy and tactics to Ukraine. Many of the Israeli techniques involve how to deceive an enemy, especially a larger and, on paper, more powerful enemy.