Elon Musk's unsolicited proposal to end the war between Russia and Ukraine earned praise from the Kremlin, while Ukrainian officials not-so-politely asked the Tesla CEO to stay out of the matter.
"F––– off is my very diplomatic reply to you," Ukraine's ambassador to Germany, Andrij Melnyk, wrote to Musk on Twitter.
Musk recommended that Russia be given permanent control of the Crimean Peninsula it seized in 2014 and that Ukraine should adopt a neutral position. He also said four regions that Russia is trying to annex should vote on their fate, under United Nations supervision.
He posted the proposal as a poll on Twitter, though when a majority of respondents voted against it, he blamed the results on a "bot attack" without providing evidence.
"It is very positive that somebody like Elon Musk is looking for a peaceful way out of this situation," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in a conference call.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy responded to Musk's ideas with his own Twitter poll asking: "Which @elonmusk do you like more? One who supports Ukraine [or] one who supports Russia." The Ukraine option won overwhelmingly.
The Kyiv Post replied to Musk, a native of South Africa. "Elon, you're a cool guy and thanks for the Starlink but it'd be so very wonderful if you were to carry out votes on things that you know about," the Ukrainian news outlet wrote. "We don't carry out votes on apartheid and Nelson Mandela."
