(Twitter / @ZelenskyyUa)

On Sunday, the Pontifex (aka Pope Francis) renewed his call for a peaceful ceasefire in the Russia-Ukrainian conflict, citing an increase in the devastation and chance of it spilling over into a greater concern for humanity. In a reply, Elon Musk then seemingly agreed.

The following day, Musk revisited the topic of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, of which he previously aided the people of Ukraine with his Starlink technology at the onset of the battle.

This time, however, instead of extending the use of advanced communications tech, he tried extending an olive branch — in the form of a Twitter poll after laying out what he believed to be a way for Ukraine and Russia to attain peace and have a ceasefire. This idea held water briefly, with few weighing the benefits of ending the war with a vote on whether to officially join part of Russia or have them be expelled from the area democratically.

As has often been the case with much of Twitter lately, which Musk still hasn't closed on, many on the platform reacted to Musk's idea negatively — even siding with the Pope wasn't enough to stave off backlash.

Musk's plan for a ceasefire and peace between the two nations was quickly dismissed by some as Kremlin propaganda, as Ukraine has recently started to retake some land in the conflict, leading many to believe that Russia can be permanently pushed out.

This led Zelenskyy and other notable figures in the region to rebuke Musk for his tweets and insinuations, and outright claim that he is supporting Russia with what he suggested.

Whether or not Musk intended to favor either side in the conflict with his poll or stir up yet another bout of backlash against him, at times like this, it's important to consider a Twitter classic before one shares their thoughts to millions of internet users.


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Comments 20 total

big thonk

Elon: "maybe stop shooting eachother for a bit idk"
Everybody clamoring for peace for months: "NAW FUCK THAT, KEEP FIRING"

keepin it real people…

1

MCC1701

I don't know if I agree with his suggestion(s) but I don't think it warrants the flak he received for it. Don't get me wrong I'm far from supporting Russia in this, if anything I'd love to see Putin toppled and potentially executed, but since I want to avoid WWIII more I rather this get resolved before then.

I agree the suggestion favors Russia, but so does the invasion despite how embarrassing it has been going so far. Assuming no major developments such as other nations getting involved it will probably end up worse for Ukraine(and Russia) the longer this goes on. While not the ideal outcome, the current trajectory looks to be worse.

I'd love to be wrong however and hope that by some miracle Ukraine comes out on top without things escalating, but I just don't think that's realistic.

1

ImperatorZor

The world does not need a ceasefire. We need Russian capitulation and the removal of the authoritarian strong-man who started the whole beastly affair.

1

bobenis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hk88F_hk71w

0

Cickany1990

I think he just wants to make this all about himself, as usual.

4

Phhase

I mean. "Please stop fighting" shouldn't be a controversial opinion. War bad. But all the same, you can't just propose it ex nihil in without seriously factoring in the current situations of the players.

8

CosmonautVulpes

it doesn't take much digging into its history to see its classic Russian play book to gain territory by moving a bunch of loyal Russians into a territory, going "Wow look at all the ethnic Russians here! guess it should be part of Russia" and if the original locals fight back Russia says "There attacking ethnic Russians we must go to war to save our people!" and take the territory anyway. Why would Ukraine agree to a vote in Crimea when most Ukrainians have been pushed out and replaced with wealthy Russians looking for a new vacation home? That's why this is seen as so blatantly favoring Russia

13

MeansOfReproduction

I can't help but be fascinated by NATO propaganda having painted Russians as sordid false-flaggers when America has been the uncontested offender in that category in modern history. On second thought, I suppose this makes a lot of sense, actually.

Several Ukrainian regions already had referenda about leaving the country all the way back in 2014, in the wake of the Euromaidan disaster, while Russian troops were restricted to Crimea. The results outside of the peninsula were a lot more mild than this time around, the majority wanted more autonomy but to remain within Ukraine. And what they got instead were shelled for 8 years by the neonazi scum which commandeered Euromaidan. Then there were the Minsk agreements, which were supported by Zelensky himself, but the neonazis doing the shelling said no. And here we are. This war was started by NATO-backed fascist maniacs, and while this simple fact isn't recognized, an entire generation of Ukrainians will keep dying for no good reason.

-8

Timey16

What's it like living in a fantasy world?

0

Gumshoe

Russian soliders were never restricted to Crimea, that was just the only place the Kremlin acknowledged that they were there. They went into Donbass from the start too and took control, Putin just made laughable claims about how they accidentally got lost and wandered in there instead of admitting it was part of an attack on Ukraine.

1

HumbleWaterFilterMerchant

Stay in your lane out of touch obnoxious billionaire

2

Revolvenant

"Maybe we should come to a compromise instead of fueling the very forever war that warpigs are trying to keep alive, like Iraq, Afghanistan and other forever "regime change" war the u.s got into. Both civilian sides would finally have some rest and the nuclear war tension could be avoided."

"FUCKING ELON MUSK MORE LIKE PUTIN MUSK RIGHT GUYS?! Who CARES about the civilians lives? We got to take down Putin at all cost! Who cares about the fact it got China and Russia to become allies? WE NEED MORE WAR MO-i mean, we have to save the people!"

This is people being in favor of ending the Vietnam war all over again, can't be against war, has to be all Red commie scum lol

-8

Gumshoe

Strawman. Nobody is saying anything like that, or wants the war to go on forever, and nobody is even mentioning communism since Russia is not even attempting to be communist since the 90s.

The real version of your pretend argument is that this "compromise" is actually a victory for Russia. It's conceding a large swathe of violently seized territory to Russia, and then demanding Ukraine is left defenseless so they can do it again when they've had time to rebuild militarily. Appeasement doesn't grant any long-term peace, which is why Ukranians are reacting extremely negatively to this.

This is not like saying America should pull out of Vietnam. That is what the angry people in the replies are asking for. They want peace with the terms being that Russia leaves and gets no spoils of war. This is more like saying the war in Vietnam could end much quicker if the Vietnamese just agreed to let America annex Saigon and all of South Vietnam as a new US state, including territory they don't even currently have control of.

6

Revolvenant

A strawman you say? Why is everyone trying to play black and white regarding war, by presenting the whole of Russia as rabid dog hungry for Ukrainians blood then? You do realize that is one too, right?
You also think Zelenksi, the man who has repeatly called for direct strikes on Russia's ground by "their allies" gives a single fuck about ending the war? They are quite literally becoming billionaires through this, an other extension of the U.S. The moment Russia backs out from their territory, it still won't be enough. They have made it clear that they want a regime change, the same thing that gave you essentially all previous unstable actual terrorist states – but this one has the biggest amount of nukes world wide.
He wants "punishment" as he said, all the sanctions and such we haven't even put on Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia isn't enough for the guy, it needs to keep escalating all the while Scud missile trucks capable of nuclear launch have been spotted being transported by trains toward Ukraine from Russia recently.
Also, there's already been plenty of people who oppose to the escalation of said war that have been called Russian puppets and other ridiculous claims, I would know having had theses arguments on many occasions, all of which got me the usual "Russian bot" 2wat reply.
You know what wouldn't be productive and helpful? Bringing the entire world closer to nuclear annihilation, I don't think Ukrainians want to IRL STALKER

-4

Hootanic

Yikes – I mean, the guy is supporting their war effort in a very real and tangible way and he offers some unsolicited advice that Ukrainian officials disagree with and the guy's a Russian sympathizer now? That's ridiculous.

Why not just say, "thanks for the feedback, but we will do what we think is best" and leave it at that. Dragging Elon in public like that just seems ungrateful.

0

Tunaria

Because the suggested peace treaty solution was heavily skewed in Russia's favor? It's easy to say "Just give Russia what they want and they'll leave", but the more likely scenario is Russia just wanting even more if that happens and Ukraine will be right back where it was when the war began: Being bullied into submission by Russia under the threat of war if they try to ask for outside assistance like they did when attempting to join NATO.

So this "advice" isn't only very unwelcome by the Ukrainians, but also is very insulting to them.

Elon Musk also has a history of providing unsolicited advice when the wisest thing would have been to just not say anything, so he only got himself to thank for being dragged out like this.

5

Hootanic

Don't misunderstand, I'm not saying Elon made some sort of useful contribution with his statement, just that the response was to go out of the way to insult a guy helping their war effort seems to be in needlessly bad taste.

3

Tunaria

Fair enough, yeah, the response could have been more diplomatic instead of instant hostility, no matter how arrogant or genuine said suggestion was.

0
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