So naturally, he took to Twitter yesterday to put in his two cents on how to end the ongoing war resulting from Russia's illegal February invasion of Ukraine--and offering solutions suspiciously similar to those propagated by Russian state media, no less.
And Ukrainian officials, including President Volodomyr Zelenskyy, did not appreciate it.
Along with his Russia-approved proposals, Musk included a poll for his users to vote on what they thought of his ideas. So Zelenskyy responded with a poll of his own shadily dragging Musk, seen below.
Zelenskyy's twitter poll asked: "Which @elonmusk do you like more?" People had two choices of response: "One who supports Ukraine" or "One who supports Russia." The pro-Ukraine option won by a landslide.
Musk's proposals angered many on Twitter yesterday after he essentially suggested Ukraine capitulate to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who invaded Ukraine in February unprovoked and has since claimed to have annexed four regions of Ukraine.
Musk's proposals included a redo of the sham elections Putin had Russian troops administer in the regions he says he annexed, in which Ukrainians in those regions were asked, often at gunpoint, to vote on whether they want to maintain their sovereignty or join the Russian federation.
Musk suggested these elections be redone with UN supervision, implying that Russia's claims of annexation are valid.
He also recommended Ukraine "remain neutral," rather than joining the EU or NATO, thereby letting Putin run roughshod over the country as he pleases. And Musk proposed Ukraine relinquish any claim on Crimea, the region Putin illegally seized in 2014.
Musk's proposals were widely praised by the Kremlin, and came as has begun threatening to defend his illegal annexations with nuclear attacks against Ukraine, the US, NATO and other allies of Zelenskyy.
Taken together, Zelenskyy's clapback at Musk was exponentially kinder than many would manage--like, for example, Ukrainian diplomat Andrij Melnyk, who just ended his tenure as the country's ambassador to Germany last week.
He had a much more pointed response to Musk's proposals.
@MelnykAndrij/Twitter
He tweeted at Musk:
"Fu*k off is my very diplomatic reply to you @elonmusk."
Yep, that about sums it up.
On Twitter, many loved Zelenskyy's pointed response to Musk's two cents.
Musk has since responded to Zelenskyy, saying he still "very much support[s] Ukraine" but is concerned about the potential harm of an escalating long-term war.
It's interesting that he's not tweeting those sentiments at the country who started the war in the first place.
@mmpadellan/X
