Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin to “single fight” amid the warfare in Ukraine — prompting a Kremlin official to fireside again on the Tesla boss, calling him a “weakling” and “little satan.”
“I hereby problem Vladimir Putin to single fight.” Musk tweeted early Monday morning, a time period that refers to a man-to-man struggle on a battlefield. “Stakes are Ukraine.”
The phrases “Vladimir Putin” and “Ukraine” have been written in Cyrillic letters utilized in each Russian and Ukrainian.
In one other tweet, he tagged Putin’s official Twitter account and wrote: “Do you conform to this struggle?”
Dmitry Rogozin, the top of the Russian house company Roscosmos, tweeted in response to Musk, writing: “You, little satan, are nonetheless younger.”
Rogozin added: “Compete with me weakling; it might solely be a waste of time. Overtake my brother first.”
Ukraine’s vice prime minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, came to Musk’s defense, tweeting: “I’m certain that @elonmusk can ship Putin to Jupiter.”
Fedorov then posted a meme exhibiting Putin inside a spaceship with the phrases “Ship Putin to Jupiter.” The meme hyperlinks to a web site the place donors can contribute cash towards Ukraine’s protection.
After Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine greater than three weeks in the past, Musk agreed to the Ukrainian government’s request to provide Starlink web terminals in case the nation is reduce off from landline connections.
Starlink is Musk’s start-up web supplier the place customers can hook up with the online by way of a dish that hyperlinks as much as satellites in house.
Final week, Musk trolled Rogozin after he declared that he wouldn’t enable the sale of Russian rockets to the US in retaliation for its sanctions regime.
Dmitry Rogozin drew widespread mockery from Musk and others after he declared on state tv that he would deny entry to Russia’s “world’s greatest rocket engines” — including the US must “fly on one thing else like their broomsticks.”
Musk replied to a screenshot of Rogozin’s remarks by linking to a earlier launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket together with the phrase “American broomstick” and 4 American flags.
Seconds earlier than SpaceX launched 48 Starlink satellites into orbit on Wednesday, the corporate’s launch director quipped: “Time to let the American broomsticks fly and listen to the sounds of freedom.”
