Here’s what you need to know about Elon Musk and Volodymyr Zelensky’s Twitter spat
On Tuesday, South African-born Tesla boss Elon Musk tweeted to his over 100 million followers, asking whether the people who live in the Donbas and Crimea should decide whether they’re part of Russia or Ukraine.
Since posting the tweet at 19.55pm on Tuesday, the tweet has since amassed over 16 000 retweets, just under 9 000 quote tweets and over 83 000 likes and counting.
In response, Ukraine President Zelensky posted his own poll asking users if they liked the world's richest person more when he supported Ukraine.
Musk claims he 'still supports Ukraine', but Zelensky hit back at the Tesla founder for his pro-Russian stance, according to the Kyiv Independent.
Zelensky replied to Elon Musk’s Twitter post about Russia’s war in Ukraine by asking people to vote on which Musk they liked better – the one supporting Ukraine or Russia.
His poll amassed over 36 000 comments, 56 000 retweets and over 200k ‘likes’.
Interesting to note, both polls had over 2,4 million people participate in the flash social media vote.
Meanwhile, an official account of the Parliament of Ukraine also joined the conversation saying:
Adviser to the Head of the Office of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, Mykhailo Mykhailovych Podolyak hit back at Musk, saying:
Last week, President Vladimir Putin formally declared four regions of occupied Ukraine are part of Russia.
Speaking in Moscow a few days ago, Putin blamed the west and said the United States had created a "precedent" by using nuclear weapons at the end of World War Two.
Putin declared people living in the regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia would become Russian citizens forever after making their choice in recent so-called "referendums".
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree to put into effect the decision of the National Security and Defence Council (NSDC), which rules out holding any negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Zelensky's press service reported Tuesday, Xinhua news reported.
The document, published on Zelensky's website, said that Ukraine's NSDC deemed holding talks with Putin "impossible."
Xinhua reported that with his decree, Zelensky also instructed the government to prepare proposals for the creation of a multi-level security guarantee system designed to boost Ukraine's defence potential.
Ukrainian and Russian negotiators held the latest round of face-to-face peace talks in Istanbul, Türkiye, on March 29.
Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022. Today is the 224 day of the conflict.
Launching the invasion in February, he told the Russian people his goal was to "demilitarise and de-Nazify Ukraine".