"I spoke to Putin once about space": Musk on Ukraine Twitter poll report

• Image Credit: Google

• Oct 12, 2022 | Dhupali Das

Musk attempted a Twitter poll to cease Russia's operations in Ukraine via his official Twitter handle...

Digital Desk: Tesla CEO Elon Musk has refuted claims that he communicated with Russian President Vladimir Putin before making a peace proposal on Twitter to end the current conflict in Ukraine.

"No, it is not. I have spoken to Putin only once, and that was about 18 months ago. The subject matter was space," Musk tweeted.

According to an earlier VICE News report, the world's richest man communicated with Putin directly before tweeting his Ukraine peace proposal on the microblogging website. 

Last week, Musk faced criticism from Ukrainian politicians, including Volodymyr Zelensky, for his tweets offering advice on how to achieve "peace" in the midst of the conflict between Moscow and Kyiv.

Musk attempted a Twitter poll to cease Russia's operations in Ukraine via his official Twitter handle. The CEO of Tesla proposed a range of solutions to the situation, asking his supporters to vote "yes" or "no" on his ideas, which included officially approving Russia's annexation of Crimea.

"In a mailout sent to Eurasia Group subscribers, Ian Bremmer wrote that Tesla CEO Musk told him that Putin was 'prepared to negotiate,' but only if Crimea remained Russian if Ukraine accepted a form of permanent neutrality, and Ukraine recognized Russia's annexation of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia," the Vice report said.

As per Bremmer, Musk said Putin told him these goals would be accomplished at any cost and even at the potential risk of a nuclear strike if Ukraine invaded Crimea. He claimed Tesla CEO Elon Musk informed him that "everything had to be done to avert that scenario."

Earlier, Andrij Melnyk, a former Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, had criticized Musk after becoming enraged by the billionaire's remarks.

"F*** off is my very diplomatic reply to you," Melnyk said in a Tweet. "The only outcome is that now no Ukrainian will EVER buy your f***ing Tesla crap. So good luck to you," he said in another tweet.

Last week, Putin formally announced the annexation of four regions: Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia, claiming that "this is the will of millions of people."

Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine on February 24 in response to a request for assistance from the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics to protect themselves. Following the military action, the western nations enacted a number of sanctions aimed at the Russian economy.