Elon Musk is facing a growing backlash over a social media post in which he mocked President Zelensky, prompting several critical hashtags to trend on his “X” platform including: #ElonMuskIsATraitor.
In a post on “X” on Sunday evening, the world’s richest man published a modified version of the “frustrated boy meme” with a picture of the Ukrainian president’s face.
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The post read: “When it’s been five minutes and you haven’t asked for a billion dollars in aid.”
The post came as developments in Washington meant the future of US aid for Ukraine hangs in the balance amid the political wrangling needed to avoid a government shutdown.
Among Ukrainians there was outrage at the post.
Mariana Betsa, ambassador of Ukraine to Estonia, wrote: “Elon, don’t you have empathy? Ukrainians are killed daily by Russia. We are fighting for our lives, for our families, for our country, for our freedom #StandWithUkraine.”
Ukrainian academic Roman Sheremeta, wrote: “I used to admire Musk, but he became a mouthpiece of the Russian propaganda and just indecent human being.”
Ukrainian media outlet Ukrainska Pravda made their own version of Musk’s meme.
"Any silence or irony towards Ukraine today is a direct encouragement of Russian propaganda that justifies mass violence and destruction," presidential aide Mykhaylo Podolyak answered on X.
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Ukraine's parliamentary speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk also slammed the post while mocking Musk's attempt to "conquer space", after his SpaceX starship blew up shortly after blasting off in April.
Stefanchuk said the attempt had said failed in five minutes and left the billionaire up to his eyeballs in problems, AFP reports.
The backlash was not limited to Ukraine – British MP Stewart McDonald, said Musk’s “mind is in the sewer.”
Glasnot Gone, an account that has tracked and reported on Russia’s full-scale invasion, posted on “X” a comment headed #MoscowMusk
Phillips O’Brien, Professor of Strategic Studies at St Andrew’s University, also harangued Musk:
Russian state media and Kremlin propagandists swiftly picked up Musk’s comments, reporting them with undisguised glee.
Vladimir Solovyo posted a screenshot of Musk’s tweet, with the caption: “Elon Musk posted a meme about Zelensky begging for money for Ukraine.”
It wasn’t the only thing posted by Musk overnight that raised eyebrows, as highlighted by Bellingcat’s Eliot Higgins:
Musk’s controversial comments about Ukraine and Russia’s full-scale invasion have become a regular feature in recent weeks. Over the weekend he appeared to conflate the situation on Ukraine’s international border with that of the US.
In a post on “X”, he asked: “Why do so many American politicians from both parties care 100 times more about the Ukraine border than the USA border?”
At the US border, thousands of largely peaceful migrants are crossing in the hopes of claiming asylum in the US.
At the Ukrainian border, tens of thousands of Russian troops have crossed hoping to illegally annex an entire country in what one Moscow general has described as a “stepping stone” to a wider invasion of Europe.
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