Putin Sends Strong Message: “Immediately Destroy” Any Threat in Syria

President Vladimir Putin issued his strongest message yet to Russian troops in Syria, saying any targets threatening his country’s forces must be immediately destroyed.

this was a response to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu calls for calm in rising tensions with Russia, while saying “our patience is not unlimited.”

Putin’s comments made on Friday come amid harsh exchanges between Moscow and Ankara after Turkey’s downing of a Russian bomber in Syria on November 24.

Turkey claimed that the Russian Su-24 bomber had violated its airspace for “17 seconds,” an allegation Russia has strongly rejected.
One of the two pilots was rescued while the other was killed by militants – some of them associated with Turkey – after parachuting from the plane.

Following the incident, Putin called it a “stab in the back” by the “accomplices of terrorists.”

Turkey has refused to apologize for the incident. Moscow and Ankara are locked in their worst diplomatic dispute in decades after Turkey’s downing of a Russian bomber in Syria.