European troops arrive in Greenland as Trump throws another curveball

European troops were arriving in Greenland on Thursday in a show of support, as leaders scrambling to respond to President Donald Trump’s threats were thrown another American curveball. Nuuk, Greenland, on Tuesday.Evgeniy Maloletka / AP The HDMS Ejnar Mikkelsen Danish navy patrol vessel docked in Nuuk, Greenland, in November 2025.Juliette Pavy / Bloomberg via Getty Images Zelenskyy has worked with U.S. envoys for months to adjust the peace proposal.Clemens Bilan / Getty Images Trump pushed ahead with his aim of “conquering” one European territory, Denmark’s top diplomat said after a high-stakes meeting in Washington on Wednesday. The president then sided with the man who invaded another, casting Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy rather than Russia’s Vladimir Putin as the obstacle to peace, in his latest reversal on the conflict already raging on the continent. Trump's comments drew new pushback from leaders in Europe, whose alarm over U.S. actions had for weeks been focused further north. Small numbers of military personnel from France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden were arriving in the Arctic island early Thursday. Hours earlier, the top diplomats from Greenland and Denmark left their talks with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio acknowledging “fundamental disagreement” on the future of the semi-autonomous Danish territory. Trump has doubled down on his demand that the U.S. take over Greenland for national security, citing what he claims is an ever-growing threat from China and Russia. Denmark said Wednesday it was expanding its “military presence in and around Greenland” in close cooperation with NATO allies, a signal of European unity as powers on the continent aim to convince Trump that an American takeover is not necessary to protect the Arctic. The Russian Embassy in Belgium, where NATO is headquartered, said Thursday that the alliance was “increasing its military presence there under the false pretext of a growing threat from Moscow and Beijing.” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned that any attempts to ignore Russia’s interests in the region “will not go unanswered and will have far-reaching consequences.” Denmark and other NATO allies have said the U.S. approach on Greenland threatens the very existence of the military alliance, already challenged by the Kremlin’s expansionist ambitions in the east. European capitals were surprised and dismayed by Trump’s proposed peace deal to settle the war that has now raged for almost four years in Ukraine, the continent’s largest land conflict since World War II. Kyiv and its allies have worked closely with the U.S. for months, revising the proposal and securing long-sought security guarantees from Washington . U.S. military action in Venezuela and the unrest in Iran have drawn attention from Ukraine, though it was expected that the next step would be to present the plan to Moscow, with the ball firmly in Russia’s court. But Wednesday, Trump flipped the script yet again. It was not Putin but Zelenskyy, he said, who was the barrier to a peace deal. Trump told the Reuters news agency that the Kremlin was...

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