Leveraging ongoing tensions over Greenland, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has offered to eliminate Russian threats from the region.
“If Russian warships are sailing freely around Greenland, Ukraine can help – we have the expertise and weapons to ensure not one of those ships remains. They can sink near Greenland just as they do near Crimea. No problem – we have the tools and people. If we were asked, and if Ukraine were in NATO – but we are not – we would solve this problem with the Russian ships,” Zelenskyy wrote on X.
The bold statement came after US President Donald Trump repeatedly cited Russian and Chinese threats to Greenland.
“NATO has been telling Denmark, for 20 years, that ‘you have to get the Russian threat away from Greenland.’ Unfortunately, Denmark has been unable to do anything about it. Now it is time, and it will be done!” Trump wrote on the Truth Social platform earlier this month.
However, the threat to Greenland now appears significantly de-escalated — if not effectively over — after Trump dramatically dialed back his rhetoric following a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte at Davos.
The two agreed on a “framework” for a future deal on Greenland and broader Arctic security, prompting Trump to rule out the use of force.
“People thought I would use force. I don’t have to use force. I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force,” Trump said at the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
It is interesting to note that the Ukrainian President spoke about eliminating the threat posed to Greenland by Russian warships at the same forum. He also cleverly linked it with the NATO membership that his administration has been lobbying for years.
If Russian warships are sailing freely around Greenland, Ukraine can help – we have the expertise and weapons to ensure not one of those ships remains.
They can sink near Greenland just as they do near Crimea. No problem – we have the tools and people.
If we were asked, and… pic.twitter.com/gYxiVV8VDL
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) January 22, 2026
Notably, one of the reasons for invading Ukraine was to stop Kyiv from joining NATO. Russian President Vladimir Putin has consistently described NATO’s eastward expansion as a threat to Russian security and called for Ukraine to remain a neutral state.
On its part, the Trump administration has also opposed offering NATO membership to Ukraine. In February 2025, for instance, Secretary of War (formerly Secretary of Defense) Pete Hegseth called Ukraine’s NATO membership unrealistic.
“The United States does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement,” Hegseth was quoted as saying.
Russia has even asked NATO to abandon its 2008 promise to one day grant Ukraine membership of the NATO military alliance, referring to the Bucharest Summit, where the alliance assured both Ukraine and Georgia that they could join, but without a timetable or roadmap for how to get there.
In August 2025, following his high-stakes summit with Putin in Alaska, Trump categorically denied Ukraine NATO membership, saying Zelenskyy can end Russia’s war “if he wants to”, but there will be “no going into NATO by Ukraine” as part of a potential peace deal.
Despite this, the Ukrainian President has not lost sight of his ambitions.
“Perhaps positions will change in the future. Perhaps someone will realize that a strong Ukrainian army strengthens NATO rather than the other way around. This is a matter of politics. The world is changing. Some people live, some die. That is life,” the Ukrainian President said last month.
Ukraine’s Success Against The Russian Black Sea Fleet
As previously noted by the EurAsian Times, Ukrainian Security Services have managed to decimate the Russian Black Sea Fleet (BSF) headquartered in Sevastopol, Crimea.
The first big Ukrainian victory against the BSF came when it sank the Moskva cruiser, the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
However, much of the Ukrainian challenge to the Russian Navy has been achieved via the sea drones, or unmanned surface vessels (USVs).
The intensity of USV operations increased significantly in 2023, reaching a peak during the summer when the Ropucha-class landing ship Olenegorsky Gornyak was struck near Novorossiysk.
By May 2024, Ukraine had equipped some USVs with R-60 and R-73 air-to-air missiles. These infrared-guided missiles didn’t require precise aiming before launch, making them well-suited for sea-based platforms.
Ukraine’s two most popular and successful USVs—the Magura V5 and Sea Baby—are known to have evolved from simple, explosive-laden boats to sophisticated platforms capable of long-range, multi-role operations. It has also deployed the Magura V7.
These USVs, which cost a fraction of the price of traditional warships — approximately $250,000 — enable Ukraine to continue mounting highly effective strikes without the risks and expense associated with manned vessels.
The Magura V5 naval strike drone accomplished a historic feat on December 31, 2024, by downing a Russian Mi-8 helicopter. At the time, the Ukrainian Military Intelligence (HUR) stated that during a battle in the Black Sea off the western coast of Crimea, the special unit Group 13 fired an R-73 “SeeDragon” missile from the Magura-V5 drone.
By early 2025, Ukraine had introduced drone boat variants with ranges extending up to 1,700 kilometers, enabling strikes deep into Russian-controlled waters.
These deadly USVs evolved into motherships, launching first-person-view (FPV) drones to target Russian air defense systems and surface-to-air missiles.
Additionally, they have been armed with advanced and lethal missiles acquired from the United States.
On May 2, 2025, a Ukrainian Magura V7 armed with a pair of AIM-9X Sidewinder infrared-guided air-to-air missiles shot down a Russian Su-30SM naval fighter jet approximately 50 km west of Novorossiysk— a first in aviation history.
These attacks have only grown more sophisticated over the past year. In December 2025, Ukraine claimed that its national security service (SBU) carried out what has been described as the world’s first-ever underwater drone attack on a Project 636 Varshavyanka class, or Improved Kilo class diesel-electric submarine in the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, using the “Sub Sea Baby” drone.
Despite lacking warships and destroyers, the Ukrainians have managed to keep the Russian Black Sea Fleet at bay. Russia has withdrawn most of its warships from the region, fearing a Ukrainian attack.
Ukraine’s highly innovative attacks on the Russian BSF have essentially rewritten the rules of combat and opened a new chapter in asymmetric warfare.
It must be noted that Denmark’s Joint Arctic Command in Greenland, Major General Soren Andersen, recently said that his attention is focused on defeating the threat from Russia, but he emphasised that there were no Chinese or Russian ships near Greenland, dismissing all the hysteria over the immediate security threat to the Arctic Island.
The Commander said a Russian research vessel was located 310 nautical miles away, adding, “That’s the closest one.”
- Contact the author at sakshi.tiwari13 (at) outlook.com
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