Talk of President Trump’s designs on Greenland filled the corridors at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, but Europe’s real security problem now is Ukraine and its fight against Russian aggression, Mark Rutte, the secretary general of NATO, said on Wednesday.
“The risk here is that we focus, of course, on Greenland, because we have to make sure that issue gets solved in an amicable way,” Mr. Rutte said on a panel in Davos. “But the main issue is not Greenland. Now, the main issue is Ukraine. I’m also a little bit worried that we might drop the ball focusing so much on these other issues.”
Mr. Rutte cautioned against complacency on Ukraine, as peace efforts continue and the European Union promises 90 billion euros ($105 billion) in funding to Kyiv over the next two years. The Russians are losing 1,000 troops a day, he said, but escalating the fight in a war that is critical for regional and U.S. security.
“Ukraine should be our No. 1 priority, and then we can discuss all the issues, including Greenland,” he said.
Ukraine, he said, was running out of interceptors to shoot down Russian missiles, and he urged European countries to step up their military industries to meet Ukraine’s needs and NATO’s own targets.
President Karol Nawrocki of Poland, which has been one of NATO’s biggest backers of Ukraine, agreed with Mr. Rutte. Speaking on the same panel, he said the war in Ukraine, on Poland’s border, remained “the main problem in Europe nowadays.”
“I’m not afraid,” Mr. Nawrocki said, “that the situation around the Greenland means that we forget about Ukraine.”
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine canceled plans to go to Davos in order to deal with damage to the country’s power and heating infrastructure from recent Russian attacks.
There were reports that Mr. Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, would travel to Russia to meet with President Vladimir V. Putin on Thursday. Mr. Witkoff mentioned the possibility in an interview with CNBC, and Tass, the Russian state news agency, quoted a Kremlin official as saying that the meeting was on Mr. Putin’s schedule.
It would be their first meeting in nearly two months. During that time, U.S. and Ukrainian officials, with European advice, have been preparing a peace proposal to present to Mr. Putin. But Russian public statements about the proposed peace plan have been largely negative.
Lara Jakes and Nataliya Vasilyeva contributed reporting.
Steven Erlanger is the chief diplomatic correspondent in Europe and is based in Berlin. He has reported from over 120 countries, including Thailand, France, Israel, Germany and the former Soviet Union.
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