A Ukrainian diplomat has told Elon Musk to “fuck off” after the tech billionaire tweeted about how he thought the war in Ukraine should end.
The news comes after Tesla stocks took a beating on the back of the company failing to meet car delivery forecasts.
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The carmaker’s shares fell on Monday from $265.31 to $241.55. They have recovered slightly since then.
Around the same time, Musk himself was being pummelled on social media after he published a controversial Twitter poll about out how he thought the Ukraine war would end.
The Tesla CEO encouraged people to vote on if they agreed with him or not.
“This is highly likely to be the outcome in the end – just a question of how many die before then,” he wrote.
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By GlobalDataUkraine’s German ambassador Andry Melynk fired back with an angry tweet, not mincing his words.
“Fuck off is my very diplomatic reply to you,” Melnyk tweeted, adding that the “only outcome is that now no Ukrainian will EVER buy your f…ing tesla crap. So good luck to you.”
Ukrainian president Volodymr Zelensky made a statement with his own Twitter poll, echoing Melynk’s sentiment.
Zelensky tweeted: “Which Elon Musk do you like more?”
His followers were then able to chose between two options: “One who supports Ukraine” and “One who supports Russia?”
Musk replied that he doesn’t care about being popular and argued that if Russia fully mobilises the nation for war, then “victory for Ukraine is unlikely”.
He then put up another Twitter poll, asking whether people think Donbas and Crimea residents should be deciding if they should be part of Russia or Ukraine.
This latest controversy is a far cry from the relationship between Musk and Ukraine at the beginning of the war.
The nation has previously hailed Musk for providing Ukraine with access to his Starlink satellite network to protect Ukraine’s digital infrastructure and prevent internet outages.
