Just after XeF<sub>2</sub> was discovered, D. F. Smith published a short communication [Xenon Difluoride][1] *J. Chem. Phys.* 38, 270 (1963) mentioning the electronic structure of your second drawing. Smith conducted infrared spectroscopy of XeF<sub>2</sub> and wrote: [![enter image description here][2]][2] Then C. A. Coulson published [The nature of the bonding in xenon fluorides and related molecules][3] *J. Chem. Soc.*, 1964, 1442-1454, which considered the validity of four models (plus some sub-models) of XeF<sub>2</sub> bonding. Coulson adds more resonance structures in addition to the two mentioned by Smith, including a purely ionic F- Xe2+ F- resonance structure. For a more recent article on the topic, see [The essential role of charge-shift bonding in hypervalent prototype XeF2][4] *Nature Chemistry* 5, 417–422 (2013). ([official link][5]) Overall, ionic contributions do need to be considered. [1]: https://aip.scitation.org/doi/pdf/10.1063/1.1733476 [2]: https://i.sstatic.net/BeZLR.png [3]: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/1964/JR/JR9640001442 [4]: http://jupiter.chem.uoa.gr/thanost/papers/papers7/NatChem_5(2013)417.pdf [5]: https://www.nature.com/articles/nchem.1619