Elon Musk tweeted: "I hereby challenge Vladimir Putin to single combat" (FILE)
Elon Musk has challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin to a fight, with the fate of Ukraine at stake. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO has challenged Mr Putin to “single combat”.
“I hereby challenge Vladimir Putin to single combat,” Mr Musk wrote on Twitter. The tech billionaire also declared that Ukraine is at stake.
In a subsequent tweet, the world's richest man asked the Russian president if he “agrees to this fight.”
Tagging the official Twitter handle of President of Russia, this time, Mr Musk wrote in Cyrillic, “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, he said he was "absolutely serious."
There was no immediate reaction from the Kremlin.
Earlier this month, the SpaceX CEO and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had a discussion about the “possible space projects. In a tweet, Mr Zelensky said, “Talked to Elon Musk. I am grateful to him for supporting Ukraine with words and deeds. Next week, we will receive another batch of Starlink systems for destroyed cities. Discussed possible space projects. But I will talk about this after the war."
Elon Musk has also provided internet facilities to Ukraine after the network connectivity was disrupted due to the military operation by Russia. Tesla's Starlink internet terminals were shipped to the war-hit zone after Mykhailo Fedorov, Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine, had sought help.
Mr Fedorov, in a tweet, wrote, “While you try to colonise Mars -- Russia try to occupy Ukraine. While your rockets successfully land from space -- Russian rockets attack Ukrainian civil people. We ask you to provide Ukraine with Starlink stations."
As the Starlink internet terminals arrived in Ukraine, Mr Fedorov shared a picture of the truck and penned a thank you note for the SpaceX CEO.
Elon Musk replied, “You are most welcome.”
The SpaceX boss had donated 50 satellite terminals to restore internet in Tonga earlier this year.