Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, stated that he thinks pressure is coming from Russia to stop the war in Ukraine. The billionaire businessman further stated that Putin “would be assassinated” if he withdrew from the bloody conflict.
Musk said this while speaking with US Republican senators on X Spaces; the senators were against a draft measure that would have given Ukraine more aid during the war.
The CEO of Tesla stated that “there’s no way hell” that the Russian President could lose the war he launched in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, even if he also opposed the further aid to Kyiv.
He asserted that extending the conflict and providing US support would not benefit Ukraine.
In addition, Musk called the claims that he was supporting Putin in the war “absurd” and stated that his businesses, including Starlink, “have probably done more to undermine Russia than anything.”
Musk turned down the Ukrainian government’s urgent request in September 2023 to turn on the SpaceX-owned satellite communications network Starlink in the event of an armed invasion because he believed it would spark a significant act of war and escalate the conflict.
The Ukrainian military has placed a great deal of reliance on Starlink since Russia’s full-scale invasion, citing it as a means of keeping front-line soldiers in communication with their superiors.
Since February 2022, the system has given Ukraine access to thousands of Starlink terminals.
Musk also voiced his scepticism on a potential Russian regime change at the X Spaces discussion, stating that the individual capable of unseating the Russian President would probably be “even more hardcore than Putin”.