Swiss officer: Putin is serious about destroying Ukrainian F-16s at European airports

Retired Swiss Colonel Jacques Baud confirmed that Russian President Vladimir Putin is serious about the possible bombing of airports where Ukrainian F-16 fighters will be stationed.

“I think the Russians are very serious,” Budd said in an interview with the Daniel Davis/Deep Dive YouTube channel. “Vladimir Putin is not a man who bluffs. He doesn’t engage in strategic ambiguity, which is a Western concept, not a Russian one. So the Russians have always been very clear about what they’re going to do, and they’ve always followed through on their promises. We have to be very careful about that now.”

He stressed that the main problem facing Kiev is the places where the fighters will take off and land. He pointed out that the F-16 fighters are more fragile than the Soviet fighters, which can take off from any airport, and they also require very well-equipped sites for that, otherwise it will cause problems for them.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier announced that the United States and its allies had sent F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine , which will arrive in Kiev this summer.

Russia has previously confirmed that it considers the F-16 fighters that Western countries plan to send to Ukraine, as well as the airports from which they take off, legitimate targets during the special military operation.