Tech billionaire Elon Musk recently made headlines after a VICE report claimed that his recent tweet — which discussed a potential plan for peace in Ukraine — was drafted following a discussion with Russian president Vladmir Putin. The Tesla CEO has since dismissed the claim as false — following criticism of his plan from officials and citizens across the world.

As seen above, Ukraine’s Ambassador to Germany, Andrij Melnyk, didn’t mince his words when it came to criticizing Musk — referring to Tesla’s products as ‘crap’. Ukraine President Zelenskyy took a more subtle potshot at Musk’s suggestions of holding polls on Twitter to check whether his fanbase was keen on various UN-supervised elections in the conflict zones — creating a poll of his own. 

While reportage seems varied, Elon’s apparent conversation with the Russian premier seems to have dire consequences. According to the report, Musk told others that Putin was determined to win the war, ‘no matter what’. This was followed by implications from the Kremlin that nuclear weapons were on the table if Ukraine refused to recognize Russia’s annexation of Ukrainian territory last month. 

The claims were further substantiated by political scientist Ian Bremmer, who tweeted a confirmation this morning:

He also went on to subtly criticize Musk’s views on geopolitics: 

Bremmer has previously commented upon Musk’s involvement in the war, which was positively viewed by Ukrainians when he provided internet terminals to help keep the country online. He eventually rejected requests to use the service in Crimea, and criticized the Financial Times for reporting inaccurately about the issue: 

The confusing aspect comes from Musk’s own denial of the entire conversation with Putin — a fact that many found amusing, given that Musk has repeatedly expressed an interest in talking to and even duelling him. Stirred up by market analyst Sven Henrich, Musk was asked to comment on the veracity of VICE’s claims within their article. He replied in the negative, suggesting that the two have only spoken back in 2021 about space-related topics.

This immediately let loose several reactions ranging from humorous to deadly serious. 

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on 4 October in a video call with the press that “it is very positive that somebody like Elon Musk is looking for a peaceful way out of this situation”. 

“Compared to many professional diplomats, Musk is still searching for ways to achieve peace. And achieving peace without fulfilling Russia’s conditions is absolutely impossible,” he added, according to Reuters.

Lead Image: TED