Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has hit back at Elon Musk’s “Insane” Twitter poll on Russian-Ukrainian peace proposals.
The Tesla titan took to Twitter and offered a series of ideas to resolve the eight-month dispute, asking his supporters to vote “yes” or “no” on his proposals, which included officially allowing the Russia to annex Crimea.
And the stunt went wrong with the country’s leader taking to Twitter with his own poll.
Mr Zelensky, who became a social media star in his own right during the war, asked his 6.6million Twitter followers to choose which Elon Musk they “liked the most”.
He then gave them two options, “Whoever supports Ukraine” or “Whoever supports Russia”.
The world’s richest man has received heavy criticism from Ukrainians after he put forward specific peace proposals to end the war.
“Redo the elections of the annexed regions under the supervision of the UN. Russia leaves if that is the will of the people,” Mr. Musk wrote.
“Crimea is officially part of Russia, as it has been since 1783 (until Khrushchev’s mistake).
“Crimea’s water supply is secure. Ukraine remains neutral.
The richest person in the world then added: “It is very likely that this will be the end result – just a question of how many people will die before that.
“It should also be noted that a possible, albeit unlikely, outcome of this conflict is nuclear war.”
He later added: “Russia is doing a partial mobilization. They go to full war mobilization if Crimea is in danger. Death on both sides will be devastating. Russia has >3 times the population of Ukraine, so victory for Ukraine is unlikely in an all-out war. If you care about the Ukrainian people, seek peace.
Mr Musk’s proposals, including polls in annexed areas, have also come under fire from some Twitter critics.
“First, it’s just plain nonsense to poll people in an active, contested war zone, even during a ceasefire. UN observers do not stay forever. What happens to voters who vote the “wrong” way after one side wins? tweeted Dmitry Grozubinsky, a Ukrainian-born former Australian diplomat.
And another user added: “Elon projects Russian propaganda, Ukraine brings out heavy weapons”.
“There should have been a third option: Elon Musk shutting up about things he knows nothing about,” another user tweeted.