From the BZ editorial team
Tesla boss and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk (51), the richest man in the world, caused irritation on Monday evening with a tweet about an end he thought up for the Ukraine war and a vote on it!
Musk initially tweeted his absurd idea of an end to Putin’s bloody war in Ukraine on Monday evening. Accordingly, the “elections in the annexed regions under UN supervision” should be repeated. In addition, Russia is leaving Ukraine “if this is the will of the people”.
Crimea is “formally part of Russia, as it has been since 1783 (until Khrushchev’s mistake)”, claims the entrepreneur – and thus takes over Kremlin propaganda 1:1. The water supply of the Crimea will be secured. And “Ukraine remains neutral,” is Musk’s idea, which he does not elaborate on.
In fact, Musk is calling for Ukraine to capitulate.
Then the billionaire asks his more than 100 million followers to vote “yes” or “no”.
Musk, suddenly a foreign policy expert, claims: “This will most likely be the result – the only question is how many people will die by then.” And: “It is also worth mentioning that a possible – albeit unlikely – outcome of this conflict is a nuclear war is”.
Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin (69), who repeatedly uses the Russian nuclear arsenal for his threatening gestures, should rub his hands…
A few hours after his first tweet, Musk even followed up, tweeting: “Let’s try it this way: The will of the people who live in Donbas and Crimea should decide whether they are part of Russia or Ukraine” – on that again the possibility to vote – “yes” or “no”.
The blast counterattack by Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyj (44) follows immediately.
Selenskyj himself called on his followers to vote: “Which Elon Musk do you like more?” – “One who supports Ukraine” or “One who supports Russia”. In less than an hour, more than 400,000 Twitter users voted on Zelenskyj’s question – the result: clearly, almost 90 percent for a Ukraine-supporting Musk.
“The only result is that now no Ukrainian will buy your damn Tesla crap,” scolded Ukraine Ambassador Andriy Melnyk (47). “So good luck to you.”
Even the President of Lithuania, Gitanas Nausėda (58), chimed in and tried to illustrate Musk’s proposal: “Dear Elon Musk, if someone tries to steal your Tesla’s tires, that doesn’t make them the rightful owner of the car, nor the owner Tires.”
And the adviser to the Ukrainian presidential office, Mykhailo Podoliak, also responded with a counter-proposal to Musk’s peace scenario. “There is a better proposal,” Podoliak tweeted: Ukraine would completely liberate its territory, including “annexed Crimea.” Russia would be completely demilitarized, would have to give up its nuclear weapons and “can no longer threaten anyone”. And: The Russian war crimes would be brought before an international tribunal.
In addition, the request: “Let’s vote?” Incidentally, Elon Musk also received a clap in his original vote on his peace scenario: More than 63 percent of the users voted “No”, contradicting the Kremlin-related plan.