Elon Musk challenges Putin on Twitter to ‘single combat’ for Ukraine

Tesla CEO Elon Musk challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin to “single combat” for Ukraine amid Russia’s ongoing invasion of the country. 

Musk proposed the challenge in a short Twitter thread on Monday, writing both Putin’s name and the name of the country in Russian.

“I hereby challenge [Putin] to single combat,” Musk said in his tweet. “Stakes are [Ukraine].”

Musk also tagged the Kremlin’s official account in a follow-up tweet to his initial offer. 

“Do you agree to this fight?” Musk asked the Kremlin. 

Musk has recently expressed his opinion on the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, sharing a video of him speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on March 5, according to Bloomberg News. 

“Hold Strong Ukraine,” Musk tweeted earlier this month, adding, “And also my sympathies to the great people of Russia, who do not want this.” 

In a response, Zelensky shared his gratitude for Musk’s support of Ukraine “with words and deeds.” 

“I’m grateful to him for supporting Ukraine with words and deeds. Next week we will receive another batch of Starlink systems for destroyed cities,” Zelensky added.

“Discussed possible space projects. But I’ll talk about this after the war.” 

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Musk has given Ukrainian officials access to SpaceX’s satellite-internet system Starlink, which has more than 2,000 satellites designed to bring web access to underserved areas of the world, Bloomberg News reported.