Ukrainian leadership lashed out at Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Twitter Monday, after the billionaire proposed a path to peace between Ukraine and Russia that included suggestions to “redo” last week’s contested elections in the annexed regions, and make Crimea formally part of Russia.
Election officials declared overwhelming landslide victories in Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Luhansk, and Donetsk, where 87 to 99 percent of the ballots cast supported annexation.
Musk suggested that the elections be redone under UN supervision. “Russia leaves if that is [the] will of the people,” he wrote.
Ukraine-Russia Peace:
– Redo elections of annexed regions under UN supervision. Russia leaves if that is will of the people.
– Crimea formally part of Russia, as it has been since 1783 (until Khrushchev’s mistake).
– Water supply to Crimea assured.
– Ukraine remains neutral.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 3, 2022
Musk argued that his proposal is how the conflict will ultimately be resolved anyway. He also noted that as long as hostilities continue, nuclear war is a grim possibility.
Also worth noting that a possible, albeit unlikely, outcome from this conflict is nuclear war
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 3, 2022
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky unfairly suggested that Musk was taking sides by trying to come up with a solution to the hostilities.
Zelensky tweeted out a poll with the question, “which Elon Musk do you like better?” with the options being “One who supports Ukraine” and “One who supports Russia.”
Which @elonmusk do you like more?
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) October 3, 2022
Earlier Monday, Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany Andrij Melnyk told Musk off in two sophomoric, profanity-laced tweets.
“The only outcome is that now no Ukrainian will EVER buy your f…ing tesla crap,” he tweeted. “So good luck to you.” In a subsequent tweet, Melnyk wrote: “F-ck off is my very diplomatic reply to you.”
Undeterred, Musk continued making proposals in his self-appointed role as peace negotiator.
“Let’s try this then: the will of the people who live in the Donbas & Crimea should decide whether they’re part of Russia or Ukraine,” he wrote, asking his followers to respond to his proposal in another poll.
Let’s try this then: the will of the people who live in the Donbas & Crimea should decide whether they’re part of Russia or Ukraine
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 3, 2022
Pollster Richard Baris (People’s Pundit) slammed Zelensky for sniping at Musk after the business magnate has done so much to help Ukraine defend itself.
Musk’s Starlink service, has been up and running in the country for months, providing internet connectivity using satellites, after commercial cellphone towers were knocked out by power outages, caused by Russian shells and jamming, the Wall Street Journal reported in July.
Musk has sent thousands of kits into Ukraine, turning the country into a high-profile testing ground for the service, which he is trying to sell in other countries around the world.
Ukrainian officials and officers at headquarters and in the field credit Starlink with keeping their forces connected.
“Without Starlink, we would have been losing the war already,” said one platoon commander on the Izyum front, where Russian forces are trying to push south to capture the Donbas region.
“Now, Zelenskyy says he’s a Putin Puppet for caring about the lives lost,” Baris tweeted. “Ungrateful.”
The billionaire also warned that Russia will go “to full war mobilization if Crimea is at risk,” and if this happens, “death on both sides will be devastating.”
“Russia has >3 times population of Ukraine, so victory for Ukraine is unlikely in total war. If you care about the people of Ukraine, seek peace,” he pleaded in the now pinned tweet.
Russia is doing partial mobilization. They go to full war mobilization if Crimea is at risk. Death on both sides will be devastating.
Russia has >3 times population of Ukraine, so victory for Ukraine is unlikely in total war. If you care about the people of Ukraine, seek peace.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 3, 2022
A huge freight train moving Russian military equipment associated with a nuclear-arms was spotted on the move Monday, prompting fears of an escalation in the war, the Daily Mail reported.
This specialist division is dedicated to the storage, maintenance and provision of weapons to the likes of the Strategic Rocket Forces, a Russian military branch that controls nuclear missiles and forms a key part of Putin’s nuclear programme.
Military analyst Konrad Musyka claimed the deployment of such units could signal a coming escalation in the conflict from the warmongering Russian president or constitute a precursor to large scale nuclear drills.
It comes as NATO warned member states that Russia’s state-of-the-art Belgorod nuclear submarine has left its White Sea base, while key Putin ally Ramzan Kadyrov said Russia’s military should use ‘low-yield nuclear weapons’ to turn the tide of the war in Ukraine.
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov reportedly wrote on Telegram over the weekend that Russia should declare martial law and deploy low-yield nuclear weapons to reverse recent military failures.
“I do not know what the Defence Ministry reports to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief [Putin], but in my personal opinion, we need to take more drastic measures,” he said.
Update:
Garry Kasparov, World Chess Champion and Chairman of the Human Rights Foundation, also blasted Musk in a Twitter thread, saying: “This is moral idiocy, repetition of Kremlin propaganda, a betrayal of Ukrainian courage & sacrifice, and puts a few minutes browsing Crimea on Wikipedia over the current horrific reality of Putin’s bloody war.”
Who are you to reward years of Putin’s war crimes with Ukrainian blood and land? To declare done what evil crimes must be undone? It is not too late to delete this and say you were high. Please do.
Rebutting the known fallacies: 1) Ukraine was neutral in 2014 and Russia attacked & occupied it, invading again this year. Never again. 2) The greatest nuclear threat comes from concessions to Putin, not standing up to him. 3) The only real peace will be when Russia is defeated.
3) Legitimizing the change of national borders by force is the way of dictators, not the free world. 5) Ukrainian people and territory are not baubles to be traded or sold by third parties, let alone to a dictatorship committed to their ethnic cleansing and slaughter.
In response, Musk tweeted back: “We gave Starlinks to Ukraine & lost $80M+ in doing so, while putting SpaceX & myself at serious risk of Russian cyberattack. What have you done besides tweet?”
More:
When entrepreneur and tech investor David Sacks came to Musk’s defense, Twitter attached an “additional context” message to his tweet.
Vast majority of the woke mob attacking him haven’t contributed anything to the Ukrainian war effort except a blue & yellow emoji.
— David Sacks (@DavidSacks) October 3, 2022
Twitter is now “fact-checking” my tweet. What a joke. pic.twitter.com/5ww1YXcnf8
— David Sacks (@DavidSacks) October 4, 2022