Elon Musk’s tweets about a “peace treaty” between Ukraine and Russia provoked a strong reaction from users and officials and caused Tesla’s shares to fall 9%.
On Oct. 4, Elon Musk decided to suggest a “peaceful settlement” of Russia’s war in Ukraine by posting a poll on Twitter.
“Ukraine-Russia Peace:
- Redo elections of annexed regions under U.N. supervision. Russia leaves if that is the will of the people.
- Crimea is formally part of Russia, as it has been since 1783 (until Khrushchev’s mistake).
- Water supply to Crimea assured.
- Ukraine remains neutral.”
Musk’s tweet has caused a sharp public outcry. In response, Ukrainian President Zelensky posted his own poll asking users if they liked the world’s richest person more when he supported Ukraine.
U.S. officials also commented on Musk’s post with a counteroffer. Paul Massaro, the senior policy advisor for the U.S. Helsinki Commission, also known as the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, tweeted in response:
“Let’s try this then: Russia leaves Ukraine immediately, pays reparations, decolonizes, demilitarizes, and denuclearizes.”
Meanwhile, Russian chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov said: “This is moral idiocy, repetition of Kremlin propaganda, a betrayal of Ukrainian courage & sacrifice.”
At the same time, Russian officials were delighted with such unexpected support. Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev commented on the tweet by American billionaire Elon Musk regarding the Russian-occupied Crimea.
“Well done, Musk… He deserves an extraordinary officer rank. True, Eustace was deciphered prematurely. The next post will be something like ‘Ukraine is an artificial state (“Ukraine is an artificial state”). ”
ISW Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, November, 4, 2024
The reference to “Eustace” comes from the TV series Seventeen Moments of Spring, in which “Eustace” is the operational code name for Colonel Maxim Isaev, a Russian spy. Medvedev is thus suggesting that Musk might be a Russian agent.
Later, Musk tried to justify his pro-Russian stance by commenting on Zelensky’s post:
“I still very much support Ukraine, but am convinced that massive war escalation will cause great harm to Ukraine and possibly the world.”
SpaceX Corporation, headed by Elon Musk, has been supplying Starlink satellite systems to Ukraine since the full-scale Russian invasion. These systems have been crucial for maintaining communications on the front lines, where telephone reception is often damaged or sabotaged. They give access to high-speed internet in places that are not otherwise available and allow the Ukrainian army, among other things, to coordinate artillery strikes and control drones.
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