Zelensky at Davos: Ukraine Could Defend Greenland if We Were in NATO

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky blasted the Europeans in his address to the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday.

He offered a picture of the Europeans looking weak and pathetic in their efforts to alternately hector and wheedle President Donald Trump.

Zelensky delivered his address soon after meeting with Trump in Davos, a discussion Zelensky’s office described as “productive and substantive.” Zelensky was especially pleased with Trump’s thoughts on strengthening Ukraine’s air defenses against Russian attacks.

The Ukrainian president set the theme of his address by recalling the movie Groundhog Day, which is about a man trapped in an endlessly repeating loop of time. He said he felt the same way, because he said that “Europe needs to know how to defend itself” when he attended the WEF in 2025 – and “nothing has changed” a year later.

Zelensky berated the Europeans for their incoherent response to President Trump’s advances on Greenland, and for dithering on holiday vacations while the regime in Iran slaughtered its own people.

“If the regime survives, it sends a clear signal to every bully: kill enough people, and you stay in power,” he said of Iran, warning that Europe should not want that notion to spread any further. Later in his speech, he said that if Europe had helped the people of Belarus overthrow their pro-Russian dictator in 2020, they would not have to worry about Russian missiles on Belarusian soil today, and they should learn that lesson when dealing with Iran.

Zelensky contrasted these Euro-fumbles with Trump’s swift and decisive action against Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. He wished that Russian President Vladimir Putin could receive a similar express ticket to justice.

“Maduro is on trial in New York. Sorry, but Putin is not on trial,” he said.

“This is the fourth year of the biggest war in Europe since World War 2, and the man who started it is not only free, he’s still fighting for his frozen money in Europe. And you know what? He’s having some success,” Zelensky observed.

Zelensky was grateful that Europe wound up blocking Putin’s access to frozen funds, but he was angry that the Europeans whiffed on seizing that money and spending it on Ukraine’s defense, and he complained that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has not established a special tribunal for Putin’s war.

Much of Zelensky’s speech alternated between thanking the Europeans for what they have done and needling them as indecisive for not going further.

“The backstop of President Trump is needed,” he said. “No security guarantees work without the U.S.”

“Europe loves to discuss the future, but avoids taking action today,” he said. “Why can President Trump stop tankers from the shadow fleet and seize oil, but Europe doesn’t? Russian oil is being transported right along European shores. That oil funds the war against Ukraine. That oil helps destabilize Europe.”

Zelensky called on Europe to develop “united armed forces” that can truly defend itself. 

“Today, Europe relies on the belief that if danger comes, NATO will act – but no one has really seen the alliance in action,” he noted. “If Russia decides to take Lithuania, or strike Poland, who will respond?”

His answer was that everyone knows the United States is the only power that can respond and the other NATO powers have only recently begun increasing their defense spending because Trump forced them to. He found the spectacle of the Europeans sending tiny handfuls of soldiers to Greenland, supposedly to hold the American military at bay, to be pathetic and absurd – and he feared Putin, and Chinese dictator Xi Jinping, were laughing, too.

Zelensky further tweaked the Europeans by offering Ukraine’s expertise in taking out Russian ships to help secure Greenland’s coast.

“They can sink near Greenland, as they do near Crimea. No problem,” he said. “We know how to fight there, if we were asked – and if Ukraine were in NATO. But we are not.”

Some European leaders might have been taken aback by Zelensky’s address, since they view themselves as more unflappably supportive of Ukraine, while Trump has been trying to bring Putin to the negotiating table for a peace deal by offering concessions.

Zelensky disputed this conventional wisdom, saying that only Trump seemed capable of acting decisively, while Europe “looks lost trying to convince the U.S. president to change” – and their approach implicitly concedes that Europe lacks the will and ability to take the lead in “defending freedom worldwide.”

“President Trump loves who he is, and he says he loves Europe, but he will not listen to this kind of Europe,” Zelensky said. “Some European leaders are from Europe, but not always for Europe, and Europe still feels more like geography, history, and tradition, not a real political force – not a great power.”

“Some Europeans are really strong, it’s true – but many say ‘we must stand strong,’ and they always want someone else to tell them how long they need to stand strong, preferably until the next election. That’s not how a great power works, to my mind,” he said.

“You can’t build a new world order out of words. Only actions create a world order,” he said, crediting Trump for making bold moves like his new “Board of Peace” while the Europeans dithered.

Reading between the lines, Zelensky seemed energized by his meeting with Trump at Davos, perhaps believing that America and Ukraine would soon present Putin with a ceasefire proposal that would be difficult to reasonably refuse – and Zelensky wants the Europeans to make it clear to Putin that they are ready to act decisively, beyond anything they have done before, if Putin chooses not to take the last off-ramp from his war in Ukraine.