DISINFO: Trump’s stance in Greenland may serve as cover for US defeat in Ukraine
SUMMARY
If Donald Trump followed his threat to annex Greenland by military means, this would be “the shortest war in the world”. Denmark warns that it doesn’t have the necessary defensive means to confront the US. But these moves by Trump, while he signals that he may not continue assisting Ukraine militarily at the level of the Biden Administration, may have another hidden goal: to cover for a hypothetical US withdrawal from Ukrainian territory after its defeat in this conflict.
RESPONSE
This disinformation story is an attempt to exploit the situation created around the statements of US president-elect Donald Trump regarding Greenland to promote long-term pro-Kremlin disinformation messages about the war in Ukraine as a proxy conflict against Russia and about the inevitability of a Russian victory. This narrative also promotes the idea that Trump will reduce or cut US aid to Ukraine, something that is far from certain.
While there has been some media commentary about a possible military takeover of Greenland by the US, at the moment of the publication of this disinformation story it remains a very remote possibility (see here for full debunking).
Messages about 'Ukraine’s defeat' are frequent in the pro-Kremlin disinformation ecosystem, but this is a subjective allegation that cannot be measured under empirical parameters, so it must be considered war propaganda aiming to portray Ukraine’s defense as a lost cause. Despite Ukraine’s difficulties with manpower and Russia’s advances in the frontline, there are other metrics pointing in a different direction, such as the massive casualties among Russian troops and Russia’s mounting economic troubles.
Claims about Ukraine as a Western proxy war are an attempt to deflect Russia’s responsibility for its brutal and unprovoked aggression against its neighbour (see here, here and here for full debunking of this allegation).
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that Trump’s assault on Greenland means NATO is dead, that Trump warns he will take Greenland by force but Europe says Russia is the threat, that Zelenskyy’s desperation grows as Trump’s inauguration gets closer, or that Ukraine aid crippled Denmark's defence.