A distraction, a threat: how Ukrainians have viewed the Greenland crisis

People walking past the site of a Russian drone strike in Odesa on Monday. Photograph: Nina Liashonok/Reuters

In the Benedikt cafe in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa, one wall is covered by a giant map with countries and territories cut out of lacquered wooden pieces, with Greenland at its apex.

The waiter has not been following news of the Greenland crisis and Donald Trump’s desire to annex the Danish territory. But the echoes of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin’s imperial land grab of the waiter’s own country are clear to him. “They’re crazy. The pair of them.”