Billionaire tech govt Elon Musk triggered the ire of Ukraine and its supporters on Monday after he recommended in a Twitter ballot that the nation ought to cede the strategically necessary Crimea area to Russia and make different concessions as a part of a peace deal.
Andrij Melnyk, Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, had a curt response to Musk’s preliminary ballot.
“F— off is my very diplomatic reply to you @elonmusk,” he wrote on Twitter.
Musk additionally drew direct criticism from Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who in a dueling Twitter ballot accused Musk of contradicting himself. Zelenskyy requested customers which model of Musk they like extra: the one who helps Ukraine, or the one who helps Russia?
That was a reference to Musk’s early and prominent support for Ukraine after the Russian invasion in February. Musk’s firm SpaceX shipped gear for its Starlink web service so Ukrainians might preserve on-line entry to the remainder of the world.
The dispute started when Musk, the world’s wealthiest particular person in response to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, floated concepts for ending the battle. His four-point plan included Ukraine ceding Crimea, a area that Russia has occupied by navy pressure since 2014.
Crimea is strategically necessary, for its entry to the Black Sea and, by extension, the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic and Indian oceans.
“That is extremely more likely to be the result in the long run — only a query of what number of die earlier than then,” Musk stated in a Twitter thread Monday.
“Additionally value noting {that a} potential, albeit unlikely, final result from this battle is nuclear warfare.”
Late Monday, Musk responded on to Zelenskyy in a public tweet, saying he nonetheless supported Ukraine however feared the results of escalating the warfare.
Musk has no formal expertise in diplomacy and little in the best way of public connection to both Russia or Ukraine. However he has a historical past of wading into world occasions indirectly related to him or his companies. In 2018, he criticized efforts in Thailand to rescue a bunch of boys trapped in a cave and despatched a miniature submarine to attempt to help.
Musk amended his preliminary four-point proposal from Monday in a subsequent tweet, asking customers in the event that they’d assist a referendum in Crimea.
However some individuals interpreted even that proposal as a betrayal of Musk’s earlier assist for Ukraine.
Musk didn’t reply to an NBC Information request for remark despatched to Tesla, his automotive firm.
