Denmark took several steps in January to prepare for a military invasion of Greenland by the United States, Danish media have reported.
Danish soldiers were sent to Greenland with explosives and blood supplies as part of preparations for a possible American invasion in January, according to a report by broadcaster DR.
Explosives were sent to Greenland so that Danish defense forces could destroy runways in Nuuk and Kangerlussuaq to prevent a potential US invasion force from landing, according to DR’s information, which is based on 12 anonymous sources close to the matter.
Blood bank supplies were also sent to the Arctic territory with the Danish soldiers for treatment of potential casualties from armed conflict.
None of DR’s 12 sources for the report, which come from the Danish government as well as officials and the intelligence community in Denmark, France and Germany, said they knew of any specific intelligence pointing towards an attack.
However, several of them said they feared such an event could take place at any moment during the month.
They retained anonymity because of the continued tension over Greenland.
DR said it had seen a military operations order dated January 13th, which served as the basis for the deployment of Danish forces in the autonomous Danish territory.
The document described an operation organizing the defense of Greenland, immediately after the US operation in Venezuela to oust president Nicolas Maduro.
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“When Trump says all the time that he wants to buy Greenland, and then we see what happens in Venezuela — we had to take all possible scenarios seriously,” a Danish military official speaking on condition of anonymity told DR.
“The official machinery of the United States is not working the way it used to,” he added.
Under the cover of a NATO exercise dubbed “Arctic Endurance”, a Danish regiment and elite forces were sent to Greenland, as well as French alpine troops and German and Swedish soldiers, DR said.
It was a real deployment and not an exercise, another source told DR.
“There was no possible ambiguity,” he said. The troops were deployed with blood for transfusions and explosives, the source said to back up the claim it was not an exercise.
Neither the Danish military nor government, nor the Greenlandic government, have commented on the report.
Trump has repeatedly said he believes the US must control Greenland to ensure its national security, and long refused to rule out the use of military force to get it.
Like the US, Denmark is a founding member of NATO.
After several intense weeks of aggressive remarks that plunged the alliance into its deepest crisis in years, Trump backed down from his threats on January 21st, announcing that he had reached a “framework” agreement on Greenland with NATO’s secretary general, the details of which remain vague.
In the weeks that followed, NATO launched its Arctic Sentry mission to beef up security in the region, in which Danish and US forces are participating, among others.
