Ukraine war: Russian space boss slams ‘weakling’ Elon Musk, who challenged Vladimir Putin to a fight on Twitter

Global leaders around the world have condemned Russia’s President Vladimir Putin over his decision to invade Ukraine, but Elon Musk is taking it one step further in challenging the Russian leader to a one-on-one fight.

“I hereby challenge Vladimir Putin to single combat. Stakes are Ukraine,” Musk tweeted Monday morning, with Putin’s name and Ukraine written in Cyrillic script.

In a follow-up tweet, the world’s richest man then tagged Putin’s official Twitter account and wrote in Russian: “Do you agree to this fight?”

When one of Musk’s 77 million followers wrote that the Tesla founder might not have thought his challenge through, Musk said he was “absolutely serious”.

“If Putin could so easily humiliate the west, then he would accept the challenge. But he will not,” he added.

There was no immediate reaction from the Kremlin. But Dmitry Rogozin, director general of Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, responded by calling Musk a “weakling” and “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 name of the 1800s Russian poem The Tale of the Priest and of His Workman Balda, which is about a lazy priest who hires a cheap worker before the worker drives him insane.

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Some Ukrainian leaders praised Musk’s tweet, including Vitali Klitschko, mayor of Ukraine capital Kyiv and Hall of Fame boxer, who previously vowed to fight “the bloody war” against Russia.

“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 comments come after his satellite internet company, Starlink, arrived in Ukraine in early March. Starlink leverages satellites to beam broadband internet access which is now active in Ukraine.

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Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked Musk on Twitter for his decision on March 5, adding he spoke with him and more Starlink systems would be sent over as people flee the country.

Musk often raises eyebrows on Twitter. In February he accused the US stock market regulator, which had imposed fines and restrictions on Musk and Tesla, of trying to muzzle his free speech.

And he compared Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Adolf Hitler in a message supporting opponents of government Covid restrictions.

He later deleted the post.

Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse