Elon Musk angers many after polling a ‘peace plan’ Transcript

Speaker 1: (00:01)
The world’s richest person, Elon Musk, has enraged Ukrainian officials by asking Twitter users to weigh in on a plan to end Russia’s war in Ukraine. Musk created a poll via Twitter, after which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy responded with his own poll tweeting, “Which Elon Musk do you like more?” The options being; “One who supports Ukraine and one who supports Russia.” Musk in a tweet proposed UN supervised elections in four occupied regions that Moscow last week moved to annex, after what it called referendums. The votes were denounced by Kyiv and Western governments as illegal and coercive.

Speaker 1: (00:42)
The proposed plan by Musk included Russia leaving “if that is the will of the people.” And he suggested that Crimea, which Moscow seized in 2014, be formally recognized as Russia, that water supply to Crimea be assured, and that Ukraine remain neutral. Musk asked Twitter users to vote yes or no on the plan. But Musk didn’t stop there. He followed up with another poll, tweeting, “Let’s try this then. The will of the people who live in the Donbas and Crimea should decide whether they’re part of Russia or Ukraine.” Supporters of Ukraine fired back. Lithuania’s president tweeted in response, “Dear Elon Musk, When someone tries to steal the wheels of your Tesla, it doesn’t make them legal owner of the car or of the wheels.” But Musk said he didn’t care if his proposal was unpopular, arguing that he did care that millions of people may die needlessly for an essentially identical outcome. The Twitter storm was met by at least one expletive from a Ukrainian official, Ukraine’s outspoken, outgoing ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnyk, who tweeted “Fuck off is my very diplomatic reply to you, Elon Musk.”