Ukrainian government reacts to American billionaire Elon Musk's 'advice' to 'stop resisting Russia' and urging the world to 'sympathize with the Russian occupiers'
yep especially the arrogance. sure he can share his wisdom, but maybe first go for an internship in the ukrainian army, little elon 😉 then I'll take it seriously
I think he wants Ukraine to fold so he can peddle his shitty inventions to Russia without pesky sanctions getting in the way, whilst styling himself as a great diplomat.
Quote from Walter Isaacson, the author of the book this claim originated from:
To clarify on the Starlink issue: the Ukrainians THOUGHT coverage was enabled all the way to Crimea, but it was not. They asked Musk to enable it for their drone sub attack on the Russian fleet. Musk did not enable it, because he thought, probably correctly, that would cause a major war.
Lets see how many downvotes directly quoting the source gets me.
urging the world to 'sympathize with the Russian occupiers'
And we should have some sympathy for the Russian boys as well as the Ukrainian boys, because Russian boys, because boys didn’t ask to be on their frontline. They have to be. So there’s a lot of sons not coming back to their parents, and I think most of them don’t hate the other side. It’s sort of like as this saying comes from World War I, it’s like young boys who don’t know each other killing each other on behalf of old men that do know each other. The hell’s the point of that.
Elon Musk's 'advice' to 'stop resisting Russia'
Well, I think that what is likely to happen, which is really pretty much the way it is, is that something very close to the current lines will be how a ceasefire or truce happens. But you just have a situation right now where whoever goes on the offensive will suffer casualties at several times the rate of whoever’s on the defense because you’ve got defense in depth, you’ve got minefields, trenches, anti-tank defenses. Nobody has air superiority because the anti-aircraft missiles are really far better than the aircraft. They’re far more of them. And so neither side has air superiority. Tanks are basically death traps, just slow moving, and they’re not immune to anti-tank weapons. So you really just have long range artillery and infantry ranges. It’s World War I all over again with drones, thrown old drones, some drones there.
He “advised” Volodymyr Zelenskyy to abandon the counteroffensive and agree to peace talks with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin
Look, I think I would just recommend do not send the flower of Ukrainian youth to die in trenches, whether he talks to Putin or not, just don’t do that. Whoever goes on the offensive will lose massive numbers of people and history will not look kindly upon them.
Most of this is just general "war is bad for everyone" and the old "the ones fighting the war aren't the one who want the war". It's true but it's also really nothing new or especially smart.
Look, I think I would just recommend do not send the flower of Ukrainian youth to die in trenches, whether he talks to Putin or not, just don’t do that
This part though is what I find problematic. This way of framing the current situation suggests a few things:
Ukraine is the one deciding for this war to happen
All that would be needed to stop this war would be talking with putin about a truce
Putin attacking Ukraine is sort of a "higher power" like a natural catastrophe that just has to be accepted
It also completely ignores a few things:
The lines are only this stable because Ukrainians risk and lose their lives every day to defend them. Stopping this would mean a truce would be no longer negotiable. Because why would Putin suddenly stop the efforts to move the lines once resistance has stopped?
Putin is the one responsible for Ukrainians going into this war and dying at the frontlines, just as he is responsible for the russian soldiers that are dying there
Also: Telling a nation to just roll over and be invaded is such an american thing to suggest.
Edit: This also misses the whole thing where other countries might accept you as a refugee if you desert the russian army, if you really didn't want to fight in this war.
So, yeah. The article accurately represents the source, based on the quotes you shared. There's a lot more appealing to people's emotions in the source, but he's still saying the same thing.
Can we start a movement to incentivize one politician or someone with a lot of representation behind them to simple tell the bird brain to "sit down, shut up and stay still"?
Why does this quote seem... Inaccurate? I've seen Muskrat speak a few times and he's seemed to have a basic understanding of the English language? Never heard him discuss the flower of youth?
Yes. I advise him (Zelensky - ed.) not to send the flower of Ukrainian youth to die in the trenches... I think he should meet Putin in person. The reason why I proposed some kind of truce or peace a year ago was that I predicted almost exactly what would happen, namely: many people would die due to the lack of tangible changes on the front line and the loss of the flower of Ukrainian and Russian youth," he said
It's from a +2 hour podcast he did with Lex Fridman. Transcript in the description. You only need to listen the first 20 minutes though. Good luck trying to find him saying the things he's accused of here.
It’s insane to me how many peoples opinions are based solely on bullshit headlines and rage comments. It’s fucking embarrassing. Read the fucking article and then ALSO think for yourself. Don’t let the retard internet mobs think for you.
Ukrainian security and world order depends on Elon Musk shutting the fuck up. If he doesn't, his money won't stop motivated governments from shutting him down.
On the other hand: This news article is crap. why not actually read the interview Musk gave:
https://lexfridman.com/elon-musk-4-transcript
After having read the part about Ukraine, my interpretation would rather be: Even an idiot like Musk is able to give a pretty good analysis of what‘s happening in a war like this.
The links does not work, but was it really based on that interview?
I think his take on the topic was reasonable - it’s allowed to just not want any more death or suffering on either side - but not realistic.
It was also one sided - you really can’t focus on what Ukraine can do without also saying who started it all and caused the war in the first place. He never mentioned that Russia started it and how easy it is for Russia to stop all suffering and achieve peace. At best you can say he’s given up on Russia, don’t think they’ll change, and try to get Ukraine to stop more suffering. But is that really realistic - did Russia stop after Donetsk in 2014? It’s not reasonable to think it will be different this time. Give Russia peace for 5 years and let them rebuild their strength? They’ll just start again and set target for Kiev.
Link still works for me. I was curious wether he really said that thing about youth being the flower, so I looked it up. And he really did. The other things mentioned in the article were there, too, albeit in a more coherent fashion. It‘s true he doesn‘t demand that Russia should stop. They should, but they won‘t. And realistically this war will go on in the trenches with the youth of both sides dying.