Key events
EU countries agree to renew Russia sanctions
We are just getting early reports from Brussels that EU ambassadors have agreed to renew Russia sanctions on over 2,400 individuals and entities, which were set to expire tomorrow.
Reuters noted that they reportedly agreed to remove three individual from the list. Hungary previously suggested it wanted to see some revisions to the list, threatening to veto it if their demands are not met.
We should hear more details in the coming hours, and will bring you the latest.
‘Enough is enough,’ as Greenland and Denmark reactto Trump’s comments
Trump’s overnight comments on annexing Greenland – “I think this will happen” – sparked fury on the island and in Denmark.
Outgoing Greenlandic prime minister Múte B. Egede, who holds the fort waiting for the new coalition to emerge, has said he “cannot accept this,” and called a meeting of all party leaders to form a united front against Trump.
“This time we must sharpen our rejection of Trump. We must not continue to be treated with disrespect. Enough is enough,” he said.
His likely successor, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, has also rejected Donald Trump’s effort to take control of the island, saying Greenlanders must be allowed to decide their own future as it moves toward independence from Denmark.
Nielsen, whose centre-right Democrats won a surprise victory in this week’s legislative elections and now must form a coalition government, pushed back against Trump’s repeated claims that the US will annex the island.
“We don’t want to be Americans. No, we don’t want to be Danes. We want to be Greenlanders, and we want our own independence in the future,” Nielsen told Sky News. “And we want to build our own country by ourselves.”
In a separate comment on Facebook, he called Trump’s comments “inappropriate.”
Over in Denmark, Jacob Kaarsbo, former chief analyst at the Danish Defence Intelligence Agency, was quoted by Berlingske as telling TV2 News that Trump’s comments “send chills down the spines of officials and politicians not just in Denmark, but all Nato.”
Rasmus Jarlov, chair of the Danish parliament’s defence committee, put it in even starker terms as he also took aim at Nato secretary general Mark Rutte for not reacting to Trump’s comments.
We do not appreciate the Secr. Gen. of NATO joking with Trump about Greenland like this.
It would mean war between two NATO countries. Greenland has just voted against immediate independence from Denmark and does not want to be American ever.
In case you wondered what was the response from the US, former Trump aide and Republican political consultant Roger Stone replied to Jarlov with this comment:
This is your sick demented repugnant, and baseless opinion. The problem is that you are no one and you don’t speak for the people of Greenland. Get over yourself no one here cares what you think about anything. Asshole.
Morning opening: Decoding Vladimir Putin
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russian president Vladimir Putin of “manipulative” response to the US proposal for a ceasefire, saying Putin pretended to accept it “at the moment he is, in fact, preparing to reject it.”
“That’s why, in Moscow, they are surrounding the ceasefire idea with such preconditions that it either fails or gets dragged out for as long as possible. Putin does this often — he doesn’t say ‘no’ outright, but he drags things out and makes reasonable solutions impossible,” he said.
US president Donald Trump also acknowledged that while Putin’s response was “promising,” it was also “incomplete.”
Getting to the bottom of what Putin actually wants and planning what to do next in response will be the focus of the next few days.
US special envoy Steve Witkoff was in Moscow last night where he was meant to meet with Vladimir Putin or senior Russian officials to discuss the proposals. As of this morning, neither the Kremlin nor the White House issued any readouts from their discussion. Could he still be there?
Speaking on Fox News overnight, the US national security adviser Mike Waltz praised Ukrainians for “a very different approach than you saw … in the Oval Office,” and urged all sides to move to ceasefire.
He declined to go into the details of discussions Witkoff had in Moscow, but insisted there was “some cautious optimism,” as the US administration expects to hear back from Witkoff “to evaluate and for the president to make decisions on next steps.”
When it was put to him that Ukraine not be allowed to enter Nato and would probably have to give up some Russian-occupied territories in Donbas, Waltz said “you are not wrong in any of that.”
“What’s important is that we are discussing all of those things with both sides,” he said.
Given public comments from Ukrainian officials on the integrity of the Ukrainian territory, it’s difficult to imagine their enthusiasm for such proposal.
On Saturday, UK prime minister Keir Starmer will host a virtual meeting of leaders involved in his planning for “the coalition of the willing,” a follow up on his Lancaster House summit earlier this month.
It’s Friday, 14 March 2025, and this is Europe live. It’s Jakub Krupa here.
Good morning.