Elon Musk has become embroiled in a feud with the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky after the billionaire proposed his own controversial peace plan to end the war with Russia.
Mr Musk, the world’s richest person, has proposed UN-supervised elections in four occupied regions that: Moscow moved to annexation last week after what it called referendums. The voices were denounced by Kiev and western governments as illegal and coercive.
“Russia will leave if it is the will of the people,” Musk wrote.
He earned the ire of Mr. Zelensky, who suggested his own survey on his Twitter account.
“Which @elonmusk do you like better?” the president tweeted with two replies: one supporting Ukraine, one supporting Russia.
Mykhailo Podolyak, advisor to Mr. Zelensky, asked Mr. Musk in a reply: “Will a hundred thousand dead vote in Mariupol? Or those who went through concentration camps? @elonmusk you make rockets and dream of colonizing Mars. Russia creates mobile crematoria and dreams that Ukrainians disappear as a nation. It’s not a matter of “voting”.
The Tesla chief suggested that Crimea, which Moscow seized in 2014, would be formally recognized as Russia, water supply to Crimea would be assured and Ukraine would remain neutral. He asked Twitter users to vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the plan.
Russia still controls the Crimean peninsula, which it annexed in 2014 after an invasion from Ukraine.
“Dear @elonmusk, when someone tries to steal the wheels of your Tesla, it doesn’t make them the legal owner of the car or the wheels. Even though they claim they both voted for it. Just say,” Lithuanian president Gitanas Nausėda tweeted in response.