Elon Musk escalates feud with Ukraine with tweet mocking Zelensky for ‘going five minutes without asking for a billion dollars’ – prompting Kyiv to post a derisive reply
Elon Musk escalated his feud with Ukraine last night with a tweet mocking the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, for his pleas for wartime aid.
In a post on his social media platform
Musk also owns SpaceX, which provides Starlink satellite communications services vital to Ukraine’s defense efforts, but his comments have at times angered Kiev since the full-scale invasion Russia launched last February.
Kiev quickly hit back at the billionaire, posting a mocking response of its own.
On the official page on ‘.
Elon Musk escalated his feud with Ukraine last night with a tweet (pictured) mocking the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, for his pleas for wartime aid
Kiev quickly hit back at the billionaire, posting a mocking response of its own. On the official page on ‘
The speaker of the Ukrainian parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk, also hit back at Musk’s joke.
“The case where…(Elon Musk) tried to conquer space, but something went wrong and within five minutes he was up to his eyes in shit,” an apparent reference to SpaceX’s botched rocket launch in April.
A Ukrainian presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, who has criticized some of Musk’s statements in the past, said in a post on X that silence or irony about Ukraine played into Russia’s hands and fueled its propaganda.
“Unfortunately, not everyone and not always, even though they are important media figures, but are thousands of kilometers away from the epicenter of the war, can realize the daily bombings and cries of children losing their parents.”
The meme sent back and forth between Musk and the official Twitter account of the Ukrainian parliament originally made its way onto the internet in 2014 with the title “Trying to hold a fart next to a cute girl in class,” and shows a male student sitting in a classroom with a tense facial expression with a red face.
The photo is often captioned by netziens to show their feelings about awkward situations or humorous frustrations, especially in cases where someone is trying not to say something.
Musk’s meme referenced the fact that Zelensky and his top lieutenants often called on their allies during the war to secure billions of dollars in military aid to weather and push back the Russian invasion.
Ukrainian officials criticized Musk earlier in the war for suggesting they should consider giving up land for peace, a position Kiev has firmly rejected.
Such a move would only benefit Russia and ensure that thousands of Ukrainians would continue to live under Moscow’s rule, they argue.
Zelensky visited the United States in September and met with top officials in Washington in an effort to secure further aid as Kiev continues its counter-offensive.
However, this weekend aid to Ukraine was left out of an emergency funding measure passed by the US Congress to prevent a US government shutdown.
The US has been Ukraine’s biggest donor since last year’s Russian invasion, providing tens of billions of dollars in military and financial aid.
But cutting $6 billion in funding from the bill will worry Ukraine and its allies amid fears that rifts are emerging in the West over support for Kiev.
Ukraine is already nervously eyeing the possibility of a return to the White House by Republican former President Donald Trump, who has previously praised Putin.
President Joe Biden has sought to reassure Kiev that it will get the funding it needs.
Musk also owns SpaceX, which provides Starlink satellite communications services vital to Ukraine’s defense efforts, but his comments have at times angered Kiev since the full-scale invasion Russia launched last February.
Zelensky visited the United States in September and met with top officials in Washington in an effort to secure further aid. Pictured: Zelensky and Biden in the Oval Office, September 21
Biden and his Democratic party say America has a duty to help Ukraine resist Russian President Vladimir Putin’s brutal invasion. They warn that failure to do so could embolden other autocrats in the future.
Biden urged Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to “stop the Games” and said he “fully expects” to soon secure a separate bill to finance Ukraine.
“I want to assure our American allies, the American people and the people of Ukraine that you can count on our support. We are not walking away,” Biden said in a speech from the White House on Sunday.
Ukraine played down the blow, saying on Sunday it was “actively working with its US partners” to secure new war aid.