Tesla CEO Elon Musk waded into Russia’s war in Ukraine Monday by tweeting that Ukraine should remain “neutral” in the war as a way to open the door to peace.
“This is highly likely to be the outcome,” in Ukraine, Musk said. “Just a question of how many die before then.”
The callous comments, which come in Russia’s eighth month of unprovoked war on Ukraine, had tinges of Russian propaganda, raising questions about why Musk, a CEO—not a diplomat or politician—would even weigh in on the war.
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In his tweets, Musk added that a peace deal should include a recognition that Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014, is “formally part of Russia.” Ever since Russia invaded Crimea and conducted its sham referenda in Crimea, the United States and other allies have recognized the region as a part of Ukraine.
The billionaire’s comments ignited a torrent of criticism online, including from Andrij Melnyk, Ukraine’s former Ambassador to Germany, who lashed out at Musk with expletive-laced insults about Musk’s business.
“Fuck off is my very diplomatic reply to you,” Melnyk said in a Tweet. “The only outcome [is] that now no Ukrainian will EVER buy your f…ing tesla crap. So good luck to you [sic].”
Musk also posted a poll asking Twitter users to weigh in on his suggestions. After a majority of respondents voted against the ideas, he blamed a “bot attack” for skewing the results.
In the early days of the war, Russian and Ukrainian officials met to discuss potential paths to peace. Russia’s proposals included demands that Ukraine remain “neutral” and recognize Crimea as Russian—two of Musk’s suggestions Monday—as well as demilitarizing. But as Ukrainian forces defended against Russia’s onslaught, gaining momentum and confidence that they might be able to beat back Russian troops in the war and defend their country from takeover, the talks fell apart.
Senior Biden administration officials have pointed out in the last several months that the war could end in peace if only Russia stopped the war and retreated from Ukraine. But a Ukrainian retreat would inevitably lead to Russia killing more Ukrainians and continuing with their goals to take over Ukraine.
“Negotiating with the Russian federation means… a fatal ending for everyone,” Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said in August.
What Musk is proposing, in essence, is that Russia be allowed carte blanche to rape and pillage throughout Ukraine, according to Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister.
“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 and rape thousands more innocent Ukrainians, and grab more land,’” Kuleba said.
Zelensky himself weighed in Monday by posting his own “poll” to Twitter and asking if people preferred an Elon Musk who supports Ukraine, or one who supports Russia.
Musk has previously weighed in on issues he appears to know little about, to dramatic effect.
Early in the coronavirus pandemic, he repeatedly made contentious—or flat out wrong—pronouncements about the virus, including by declaring that kids were “essentially immune” to COVID-19. He also argued that the “coronavirus panic is dumb” and forecasted, very wrongly, that the United States would likely approach “close to zero new cases” by April 2020.
As the pandemic raged on, Musk continued to poke at government officials over aggressive restrictions—which had complicated production at his electric carmaker Tesla.
Last February he directed his ire overseas, tweeting (then deleting) a meme comparing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Hitler; Trudeau had been warring with a convoy of truckers over the country’s vaccine mandates.
Over the years, Musk has separately caused major controversies across multiple other fronts: declaring inaccurately on Twitter in 2018 that he had secured funding to take Tesla private (triggering a $40 million fraud settlement with the SEC), wading into an effort to rescue children stuck in a Thai cave, and becoming an increasingly vocal champion of some Republican politicians.
The billionaire has achieved greater success within the tech world. His satellite internet company Starlink has aided Ukrainian fighters in the field, while SpaceX, his rocket startup, is now worth more than $100 billion.
But despite Musk’s poking and prodding for a negotiation over Russia’s war in Ukraine, peace talks appear far off at the moment. In recent days, as Russia has held more sham referenda in four regions in Ukraine and sought to illegally annex them, Zelensky has indicated there is no way to hold productive and genuine peace talks with Putin.
“This is clear and obvious,” Zelensky said in an address last week. “Russia’s implementation of the so-called Crimean scenario and another attempt to annex Ukrainian territory will mean that there is nothing to talk about with this President of Russia.”
