NEW YORK/KIEV — Billionaire businessman Elon Musk has been strongly criticized after posting a series of Tweets about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba are among the most prominent politicians who responded to the online comments.
On Monday evening Musk tweeted about the conflict to his 107.7 million followers, telling them first that to achieve peace between Ukraine and Russia there should be a “redo” of elections “under UN supervision” in four areas of eastern Ukraine illegally annexed by Russia.
Musk said “Russia leaves” those areas “if that is the will of the people.”
He also said that Crimea, illegally annexed by Russia in 2014, should become “formally part of Russia, as it has been since 1783 (until Krushchev’s mistake), referencing the 1954 decree issued by then-Soviet premier Nikita Krushchev to transfer responsibility for Crimea to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
The line about Crimea being part of Ukraine was “Krushchev’s mistake” has long been a Kremlin talking point.
Tesla boss Elon Musk also said that Ukraine must “remain neutral,” and in later tweets said “victory for Ukraine is unlikely.”
In response to Musk’s tweets, President Zelensky posted a Twitter poll asking “which Elon Musk to you like more?” with the options being “one who supports Ukraine” or “one who supports Russia.”
Ukraine’s foreign minister was even more vociferous in his response to Musk, although he didn’t mention the South African-born businessman directly by name.
“Those who propose Ukraine to give up on its people and land — possibly not to hurt Putin’s bruised ego or to save Ukraine from suffering — must stop using word “peace” as an euphemism to “let Russians murder and rape thousands more innocent Ukrainians, and grab more land”.
Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany was also undiplomatically direct in his response to Musk’s comments saying “Bugger off is my very diplomatic reply to you”, and writing that “the only outcome is that now no Ukrainians will EVER buy your tesla crap. So good luck to you”.
The overwhelming majority of the reaction on Twitter to Musk’s comments about Ukraine have been negative, with typical responses telling him not to comment on things he apparently knows very little about.— Euronews