Copenhagen has donated almost all of its armed forces’ heavy land-warfare equipment to Kiev, the media outlet claims
The donation of military aid to Kiev has depleted Denmark’s already limited defense capabilities, Politico reported on Friday.
The news outlet raised the issue in a report outlining a hypothetical scenario involving a military standoff between the Nordic country and the US over Greenland. Donations to Ukraine have made it even more difficult for Copenhagen to defend itself despite exceeding NATO’s 2% spending target, the report said.
US President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly stated that he would like to acquire the Danish-controlled territory of Greenland, and refused to rule out a military takeover of the island earlier in January. Brussels responded to Trump’s comments by describing a potential US attack on the island as a “highly theoretical issue.” The topic has regularly appeared in the news headlines recently, with Reuters claiming that the incoming US president was “serious” about the acquisition.
Even though donations of heavy military equipment would not be a decisive factor in any potential conflict due to the massive disparity in the two nations’ defense capabilities, they have still crippled the Danish Armed Forces, Politico reported.
“Denmark has … significantly depleted its own arms stocks by giving artillery systems and tanks to Kiev, arguing that, unlike the Ukrainians, the Danes don’t face a direct threat from a hostile imperialist power,” the media outlet said, adding that “most of [the kingdom’s] heavy land-warfare equipment” had gone to the Ukrainian military.
That would still be of little significance in the event of a US attack, Politico maintained, as a nation with a defense budget amounting to $9.9 billion and armed forces totaling 17,000 soldiers would be facing a major power with the world’s biggest defense spending of $948 billion in 2024 and an army of 1.3 million personnel.
“That would be the shortest war in the world, there is no defensive capacity in Greenland,” Ulrik Pram Gad, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, told Politico.
“Denmark has been very aware it cannot defend Greenland against anybody on its own,” said Kristian Soby Kristensen, a senior researcher at the University of Copenhagen’s Center for Military Studies. The Danish government is taking the issue “very seriously” and has no intention of escalating “a war of words” with the incoming US administration, Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said this week.
Relying on NATO or the EU would also be problematic for Copenhagen, according to the report, since Brussels would simply be unable to muster any “genuine military force,” even if the EU Treaty’s mutual-assistance clause were triggered. It is also unclear whether Denmark could invoke Article 5 of the NATO treaty if attacked by another member of the bloc.
“You would essentially have a NATO member annexing the territory of another NATO member. So it would be pretty uncharted territory,” Agathe Demarais, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told Politico.
