Elon Musk under fire for inflammatory Ukraine Twitter comments
Billionaire businessman Elon Musk has been strongly criticised after posting a series of Tweets about Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba are among the most prominent politicians who responded to the online comments.
On Monday evening Musk tweeted about the conflict to his 107.7 million followers, telling them first that to achieve peace between Ukraine and Russia there should be a "redo" of elections "under UN supervision" in four areas of eastern Ukraine illegally annexed by Russia.
Musk said "Russia leaves" those areas "if that is the will of the people."
He also said that Crimea, illegally annexed by Russia in 2014, should become "formally part of Russia, as it has been since 1783 (until Krushchev's mistake), referencing the 1954 decree issued by then-Soviet premier Nikita Krushchev to transfer responsibility for Crimea to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
The line about Crimea being part of Ukraine was "Krushchev's mistake" has long been a Kremlin talking point.
Tesla boss Elon Musk also said that Ukraine must "remain neutral," and in later tweets said "victory for Ukraine is unlikely."
In response to Musk's tweets, President Zelenskyy posted a Twitter poll asking "which Elon Musk to you like more?" with the options being "one who supports Ukraine" or "one who supports Russia."
Ukraine's foreign minister was even more vociferous in his response to Musk, although he didn't mention the South African-born businessman directly by name.
"Those who propose Ukraine to give up on its people and land — presumably not to hurt Putin’s bruised ego or to save Ukraine from suffering — must stop using word “peace” as an euphemism to “let Russians murder
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