Ukrainian Diplomat Has 2-Word Retort to Elon Musk Proposal

On Monday, Elon Musk tweeted a proposal for what he termed "Ukraine-Russia Peace." It didn't land well with many. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO's idea: "Redo elections of annexed regions under UN supervision. Russia leaves if that is will of the people. Crimea formally part of Russia, as it has been since 1783 (until Khrushchev’s mistake). Water supply to Crimea assured. Ukraine remains neutral." He added, "This is highly likely to be the outcome in the end – just a question of how many die before then." He put the plan up for a yes/no poll, and quite a few replies in the comments let him know in no uncertain terms that their answer was "no." So did many big names who responded both on and off Twitter:

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky: He tweeted his own poll asking, "Which @elonmusk do you like more?" The poll answer options were "One who supports Ukraine" and "one who supports Russia." Musk replied, "I still very much support Ukraine, but am convinced that massive escalation of the war will cause great harm to Ukraine and possibly the world."

• Ukrainian diplomat Andriy Melnyk: He had a succinct, and also NSFW, response for Musk. "[Redacted] off is my very diplomatic reply to you @elonmusk," tweeted Melnyk, who was his country's ambassador to Germany until the end of last month, the Hill reports.
• Ukraine's parliament: The body's official Twitter account responded even more succinctly with simply, "No," reports the Washington Post, which calls the response to Musk's poll "chaos."
• More: Among the other voices adding to that chaos: the Ukrainian news outlet Kyiv Post ("We don’t carry out votes on apartheid and Nelson Mandela") and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, per Politico ("Dear @elonmusk, when someone tries to steal the wheels of your Tesla, it doesn’t make them [the] legal owner of the car or of the wheels. Even though they claim both voted in favor of it. Just saying.").
• From the other side: The pro-Kremlin propaganda news network RT seemed to endorse Musk's plan with its own retweet, which the Kyiv Post told Musk was a "bad sign." Former Russian president and prime minister Dmitry Medvedev also tweeted "kudos" to Musk.

• Another idea: As the controversy swirled, Musk tried again. "Let’s try this then: the will of the people who live in the Donbas & Crimea should decide whether they’re part of Russia or Ukraine," he tweeted, along with another yes/no poll. The tweet sparked Nauseda's reply above, and many other similar ones.
• An alternate plan: The chairman of Ukraine's parliament proposed his own idea on Telegram: "Russia withdraws from Ukraine and stops killing Ukrainian civilians. Moscow is sold to China and disappears from the face of Earth as it has been since 1147 (until Yuri Dolgorukiy’s mistake). Russia pays reparations to Ukraine for everything it has done. Ukraine is a member of NATO."
• 'Devastating': Musk didn't back down, tweeting later that if Crimea is at risk, Russia will go from "partial" to "full war mobilization," with "devastating" results. At other times, he suggested "millions" could die "needlessly," and that nuclear war is a "possible, albeit unlikely, outcome from this conflict."
• SpaceX's official stance: At another point, Musk noted, "SpaceX’s out of pocket cost to enable & support Starlink in Ukraine is ~$80M so far. Our support for Russia is $0. Obviously, we are pro Ukraine."
• Bots? CNN notes that Musk appeared to claim a Twitter bot attack was behind the poll results for his original poll, which were skewed toward "no."

(More Elon Musk stories.)