While world leaders have slammed Russia’s President Vladimir Putin for the Ukraine invasion, Elon Musk has gone a bit far by challenging Putin to one-on-one combat.
“I hereby challenge Vladimir Putin to single combat. Stakes are Ukraine,” Musk tweeted Monday morning. The tweet received 73,000 likes.
Musk then tagged Putin’s official Twitter account in a follow-up tweet, writing in Russian, “Do you agree to this fight?”
Musk’s sentiments did not go down well with everyone. Dmitry Rogozin, the director-general of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, responded by labelling Musk a “weakling” and a “little devil.”
“You, little devil, are still young, Compete with me weakling; It would only be a waste of time. Overtake my brother first,” Rogozin wrote.
He also included the title of a Russian poem from the 1800s called “The Tale of the Priest and of His Workman Balda,” a lazy priest who hires cheap labour before the worker drives him nuts.
Some Ukrainian authorities hailed Musk’s post, including Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and a Hall of Fame boxer who has previously threatened to battle Russia in a “the bloody war.”
“I am sure that Elon Musk can send Putin to Jupiter,” Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov wrote before sharing a link to a website taking donations to “Send Putin to Jupiter.”
Musk’s remarks follow his satellite internet company, Starlink, in Ukraine in early March. Starlink, already operational in Ukraine, uses satellites to beam broadband internet connectivity.
On March 5, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy congratulated Musk on Twitter for his decision, saying he spoke with him and that more Starlink devices would be shipped over as people fled the country.
