Elon Musk Challenges Putin to “Single Combat” Over Ukraine

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has seemingly challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin to a one-on-one fight over Ukraine. Taking to Twitter on Monday, Musk challenged Putin to a fight — with the stakes being Ukraine.

“I hereby challenge Vladimir Putin to single combat,” he tweeted, using the Cyrillic alphabet to spell out Vladimir Putin’s name.

I hereby challenge
Владимир Путин
to single combat

Stakes are Україна

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 14, 2022

Elon Musk has voiced his own public support for Ukraine. On March 5, he wrote “Hold Strong Ukraine” and “also my sympathies to the great people of Russia, who do not want this.”

However, while several nations have blocked Russian news outlets and requested that SpaceX’s Starlink do the same, Musk refuses to block them from his satellite broadband service.

“Unless at gunpoint”, he tweeted on Saturday, as a response to those who had asked him to do so. As an advocate of free speech, he explained, he will not disallow the Russian outlets from his service. Currently, Russian media still have full access to Starlink.

Musk Gives Starlink satellite internet access to Ukraine

Since the Russian invasion, Ukraine has been regularly targeted by cyberattacks carried out by Russian operators, according to the country’s IT security agency.

It was necessary then to have internet access via satellite. Musk sent Starlink satellite internet access terminals to Ukraine at the beginning of March.

This was after Mykhailo Fedorov, the Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister, challenged the billionaire on Twitter to send the terminals to Ukraine.

Musk took the challenge and sent them, but warned that these Starlink terminals will likely be attacked by Russian hackers.

Now Starlink is the only non-Russian communications system still working in some parts of Ukraine, but it is prone to cyber attacks.

“Turn on Starlink only when needed and place antenna as far away from people as possible. Place light camouflage over antenna to avoid visual detection,” Musk advised.