Elon Musk Slammed For Russia-Friendly Proposal To End War In Ukraine

Musk offered four proposals for “Ukraine-Russia Peace” in a tweet: Formally recognizing the Crimean peninsula as Russian territory (Russia illegally annexed the area from Ukraine in 2014), ensuring a steady water supply to Crimea, Ukraine committing to remain neutral and not join NATO, and having the United Nations oversee another round of referendums to join Russia in several eastern Ukrainian regions, allowing Russia to overtake the regions if the vote passes.

The Tesla CEO explained in a follow-up post it’s “highly likely to be the outcome in the end – just a question of how many die before then.”

A flurry of criticism followed Musk’s tweet, with Ukrainian diplomat Andrij Melnyk response, “Fuck off is my very diplomatic reply to you @elonmusk,” quickly going viral, racking up more than 90,000 likes, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted out a poll of his own, asking if people like a pro-Russia or pro-Ukraine Musk better.

Musk’s suggestion is a major break from the White House and Ukrainian government’s thoughts on what Ukraine should be willing to concede, with President Joe Biden saying Friday the U.S. will “always honor Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders” and Zelensky insisting the country has no plans to relinquish any territory to Russia.

The tweet included a poll, with over 60% of the more than one million respondents voting against Musk’s ideas, dissidence Musk attributed to the “biggest bot attack I’ve ever seen,” furthering his suggestion that Twitter is flooded with more fake and spam accounts than it reports as the billionaire seeks to back out of his $44 billion takeover of the social media company.