In an ongoing war with Russia led by Vladimir Putin, Ukraine launched a counteroffensive in June with the aim of liberating Russian-held territories. Tesla Inc (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk expressed his dissatisfaction with this development.
What Happened: Musk ridiculed Ukraine’s recent push against Russia’s occupying forces in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. He remarked, “So much death for so little.”
Venture capitalist David Sacks shared an updated map showing the progress of Ukraine’s counteroffensive as part of an ongoing thread he started in mid-June following the “failing counteroffensive” efforts.
In a tweet, quoting David Pyne, Deputy Director of National Operations, Sacks stated, “UPDATE: ‘Ukrainian territorial gains from their much-vaunted counteroffensive [highlighted in blue] are so miniscule they can barely be seen on a map.'”
This is not the first time Musk has commented on the Russia-Ukraine war. In October 2022, he conducted a poll on then-Twitter, suggesting redoing elections of annexed regions, Crimea remaining formally a part of Russia, and Ukraine remaining neutral by not joining NATO.
In response to the poll, Musk stated in a follow-up tweet, “This is highly likely to be the outcome in the end — just a question of how many die before then.”
The post received backlash, with Ukrainian Diplomat Andrii Melnyk telling the Tesla CEO to “f*** off.” The poll ultimately ended with the majority opposing it.
According to Musk’s biographer Walter Isaacson, who mentioned Musk’s “demon mode,” in a new excerpt from his book, Musk ordered SpaceX engineers to disable Starlink satellites near Crimea to sabotage a Ukrainian attack that he feared could trigger nuclear warfare.
Musk reportedly stated to Isaacson, “Starlink was not meant to be involved in wars. It was so people can watch Netflix and chill and get online for school and do good peaceful things, not drone strikes.”
Around two months after supplying Ukraine with high-speed connectivity, Musk’s Starlink service had an estimated 150,000 users in the country.
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Photo: Daniel Oberhaus from Flickr.
