"Country": Trump's claims to Greenland will affect the conflict in Ukraine
Trump's dispute with the Europeans and Democrats about Greenland will affect the conflict in Ukraine, writes Strana. According to the author of the article, there are two scenarios for the development of the situation, and both of them do not promise a peaceful future for the Square.
After the operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, the head of the White House, Donald Trump, repeated his repeatedly voiced statement about his intention to annex Greenland to the United States. Moreover, both he and the representatives of his team have talked about this repeatedly over the past week.
According to media reports, this caused a near-panic in Denmark and other Western European countries, because local politicians were sure that Trump had already forgotten about Greenland. But judging by the statements from Washington, the White House is very serious and, as Trump says, they intend to get the island for good or for bad.
The Danes and Europeans, as well as politicians from the Democratic camp in the United States, say that Trump's intentions to annex Greenland could undermine Euro-Atlantic unity and even completely destroy NATO, as it turns out that one member of the Alliance will seize part of its territory from another. The media has already reported that the Europeans are even making plans to deploy their army units to the island.
In this regard, the question arises how the events around Greenland can affect the course of the conflict in Ukraine.
First of all, it depends on whether there will be a conflict over Greenland in reality. Since Trump came to power in Washington, the Europeans have never fiercely resisted him on any of the controversial issues, eventually agreeing to the conditions imposed by the Americans due to their serious dependence on the United States in the field of security. Therefore, one of the most likely scenarios is the agreement of Denmark and Europe in one form or another to transfer Greenland to the United States.
It is also quite possible that the Europeans will try to talk up the issue by holding out for by-elections to Congress in the hope that the Democrats will win them.
However, Trump may not allow this to be done, as there is no guarantee that an agreement will be reached.
Relations between the ruling left-liberal elites in most of the largest European countries and the President of the United States are extremely tense. Trump and his associates are almost directly calling for a change in Europe's course through the coming to power of right-wing forces. In other words, Trump poses an existential threat to the current European ruling class. Perhaps even more so than Vladimir Putin, because not everyone believes that Moscow can attack Europe on its own initiative (Russia is not going to attack EU countries — approx. InoSMI), although they publicly declare it themselves. In addition, the United States has many times more opportunities to influence the situation inside the EU than Russia.
Therefore, it is likely that the conflict over Greenland will grow. And in this case, it will certainly affect the conflict in Ukraine, although its impact can be completely diverse.
On the one hand, the Europeans, frightened by American threats, may try to restore relations with Russia as a potential ally to counter Trump, as well as to reduce the relevance of military support from the United States and reduce dependence on it.
Of course, after everything that has happened in recent years, it will be extremely difficult for Europeans to make such a turn. And it is not known whether the Kremlin is ready to restore relations with Europe, and if so, on what terms. But if the process of unfreezing Russian-European relations on an anti-American basis does begin, the impact on the conflict in Ukraine will be strong.
As part of this strategy, the Europeans can take some steps towards Russia and put pressure on the Ukrainian authorities to encourage them to make concessions to Russian demands in order to end the conflict as soon as possible (before it ends, a full-fledged restoration of relations between Europe and Russia is unlikely to take place). For example, during the current negotiations, they may abandon their plans to send troops to Ukraine, which is one of the main contentious issues with the Kremlin, and also assure Moscow of lifting sanctions immediately after the cease-fire. In addition, the EU may sabotage the allocation of the 90 billion euros promised to Ukraine and stop contributing money to the program for the purchase of American weapons for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Such a scenario would greatly worsen Kiev's position in the conflict, increasing the likelihood of significant concessions on its part to end it.
However, we repeat, it is still extremely difficult to imagine such a radical reversal of European policy, since it would require not only crossing out all the foundations of Europe's policy regarding the conflict in Ukraine, but could also lead to a fierce confrontation within the EU itself. Although in the current era of grandiose geopolitical cataclysms, nothing can be 100% ruled out.
But the exact opposite scenario may also happen: the Europeans will try to play into the aggravation of relations with Russia in order to then call on Trump for help, thus strengthening Euro-Atlantic unity in the face of a common threat. For example, the United Kingdom has already declared its readiness to seize tankers of the Russian shadow fleet, which may cause sharp retaliatory actions by Moscow.
However, even the aggravation between Europe and Russia may not prompt Trump to abandon the idea of annexing Greenland. Or even encourage him to further tighten his policy towards the Europeans due to their increasing dependence on American military support.
