When Russia released its major intrusion of Ukraine in 2022, Elon Musk was hailed as one of Kyiv’s staunchest allies. A Russian malware attack maimed satellite interactions throughout Ukraine, and authorities anxiously pleaded with the SpaceX creator to assist.
3 years later on, Musk has actually cautioned that Ukraine’s “whole cutting edge would collapse” without SpaceX’s satellite terminals, highlighting their vital function in the nation’s defence versus Russia. He has actually likewise utilized his platform X to consistently assault Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky, sharing incorrect claims and requiring elections to change him.
It’s a sharp turn-around for the tech billionaire, who has actually signed up with the current pile-on versus the wartime leader, led by Donald Trump. Today, after X was targeted by a cyber attack, Musk blamed Ukraine. He then implicated a United States Democrat senator who went to Kyiv in a program of assistance of being “a traitor”.
Recalling to the very first day of Russia’s intrusion, Mykhailo Fedorov, deputy prime minister of Ukraine, utilized Twitter to advise Musk to send out the nation SpaceX satellite terminals. We ask you to offer Ukraine with Starlink stations and to attend to sane Russians to stand,” he published.
The billionaire required. Starlink service is now active in Ukraine,” he responded. More terminals en path.” On 26 February 2022, 500 Starlink terminals got here in Ukraine.
Starlink’s system becomes part of SpaceX’s endeavor to offer high-speed web to remote locations. It has actually been utilized thoroughly by the Ukrainian military throughout the war.
Nevertheless, relations quickly turned sour when the Tesla owner took it upon himself to assist discover an end to the war, recommending Ukraine needs to deliver a few of its area and hold brand-new elections in locations annexed by Russia.
” This is extremely most likely to be the result in the end– simply a concern of the number of pass away before then,” Musk composed on Twitter, including that another possible result would be nuclear war.
Russia has > 3 times population of Ukraine, so triumph for Ukraine is not likely in overall war. If you appreciate individuals of Ukraine, look for peace,” the billionaire tweeted hours later on.
Ukrainian authorities, consisting of President Zelensky countered at Musk, with Ukrainian diplomat Andriy Melnyk stating: “F *** off is my really diplomatic reply to you @elonmusk.”
Musk quickly pulled back. SpaceX’s expense expense to make it possible for and support Starlink in Ukraine is ~$ 80M up until now,” he tweeted. “Our assistance for Russia is $0. Certainly, we are pro-Ukraine.”
The X owner stated: “The hell with it. Despite the fact that Starlink is still losing cash & other business are getting billions of taxpayer $, we’ll simply keep moneying Ukraine govt free of charge.
According to federal information evaluated by The Independent, Musk’s own business have actually been guaranteed or granted almost $21 billion by the United States federal government given that 2008.
The billionaire has actually continued to voice his criticisms of Ukraine and targeted American help to Ukraine, questioning its responsibility and function. His sharpest barbs have actually been targeted at Zelensky, discounting the Ukrainian president’s pleas for more assistance and buffooning his persistence that Kyiv must not be pushed into settlements.
Formerly, Musk focused most of his posts on the war in Ukraine more broadly, however in the previous couple of months he has actually turned his attention to Ukraine’s president – at the exact same time as Trump started to openly berate him.
Because February alone, Musk has actually published lots of times taking chance ats Zelensky, with a lot of these posts prompting him to call an election, or implicating him of damaging his track record.
These posts given that February alone have actually gathered over 600 million views, according to analysis from The Independent, and his posts on Ukraine and Zelensky in general have actually been seen some 883 million times.
Musk has actually ended up being a crucial token in the 2nd Trump administration, where he heads the United States Department of Federal Government Effectiveness or DOGE. He has actually likewise utilized this position to wade into European politics and back reactionary political leaders throughout the continent. Musk frequently makes these remarks to his 219 million fans on X– the social networks platform he acquired for $44bn in 2022.
Musk has actually been greatly criticised for enabling, and in many cases promoting, false information on the platform. An analysis released by the not-for-profit Center for Countering Digital Hate discovered that almost three-quarters of a sample of incorrect or deceptive posts about the 2024 United States elections did not show precise notes fixing the record.
The billionaire has himself backed the reactionary, pro-Russian, anti-Muslim celebration in Germany and called Sir Keir Starmer an “wicked autocrat” who runs a “cops state”.
In his newest remarks about the dispute, the X owner published on his social networks website: “Ukraine requires to hold an election. Zelensky would lose by a landslide.” The post has actually been seen over 50 million times, with 250,000 likes, 45,000 reposts and 35,000 remarks. Similar to a lot of Musk’s posts, the remarks frequently duplicate his talking points without difficulty and spread out the false information even more.
Ukraine is not able to hold elections under the present martial law, enforced given that Russia’s intrusion. Ukrainian opposition leaders have actually dismissed the concept of holding a wartime election too. X’s fact-checking tool, “neighborhood notes”, has yet to remedy the record over this false information.
On 3 March, Musk implicated the embattled Ukrainian president of desiring a “permanently war” with Russia. “This is wicked,” he included. In a different post, he stated Zelensky had an option to “look for peace” with Moscow however was going with bloodshed. This is harsh and inhumane.” His posts about Ukraine on 2-3 March have actually gathered over 260 million views on X.
In February, he duplicated an unverified claim from Trump that Zelensky’s approval ranking is 4 percent. This time, his own fact-checking tool fixed him. In reaction so he pledged to “repair” it and declared the fact-checking system he normally commemorates was being “gamed” by federal governments and the media.
Mitali Mukherjee, acting director at the Reuters Institute, cautioned false information has actually ended up being “a helpful tool by those in positions of power to disabuse news reportage that is vital of their actions.”
Research study from the institute discovered that 72 percent of United States online news users are worried about identifying genuine from phony material. Platforms like X and TikTok are viewed as the most difficult for discovering credible info.
X has actually seen decreasing user numbers in the in 2015. Last April, X had actually a reported 611 million international users, which dropped to 588 million users in September. The losses have actually been biggest in the United States and UK.
” While the concept of ‘controling’ the issue is appealing, this is neither an online just nor an ‘X’ just difficulty,” Ms Mukherjee informed The Independent. ” Media, and social networks, are frequently blamed for polarization although much of that story is pressed by effective stars.”
The Independent has actually gotten in touch with Elon Musk and X for remark.