Elon Musk has denied a claim that he spoke to Vladimir Putin before tweeting a peace plan for the war in Ukraine.
The Tesla CEO’s peace suggestion included Ukrainian territory being handed over to Russia.
Eurasia Group subscribers were sent an emailed report in which Ian Bremmer wrote that Mr Musk told him that the Russian president was “prepared to negotiate” if the Crimean peninsula remained in Russian hands, Vice reported.
Other conditions included that Ukraine retains permanent neutrality and that Ukraine recognises the Russian annexation of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia.
Mr Bremmer reports that Mr Musk said that Mr Putin told him that these targets would be reached “no matter what”.
This includes the possible use of nuclear weapons if Ukraine invades Crimea. The peninsula was annexed by Russia in 2014.
According to Mr Bremmer, Mr Musk said that “everything needed to be done to avoid that outcome”.
On Twitter on Tuesday, Mr Musk asserted that the reporting wasn’t true. “I have spoken to Putin only once and that was about 18 months ago. The subject matter was space,” he said.
Mr Musk tweeted suggestions for peace in Ukraine last week similar to Mr Putin’s demands, adding the suggestion that the referendums conducted in the annexed areas, which have been denounced as sham votes by both Ukraine and the West, be conducted again under the leadership of the United Nations.
Previously this year, Mr Musk challenged Mr Putin to “single combat”. This month, he tweeted that “we talked via videoconference last year”.
Mr Musk became well-liked in Ukraine during the early phases of the war for sending internet terminals to keep the country online following the invasion.
According to Mr Bremmer, Mr Musk rejected a request from Ukraine to use the terminals in Crimea.
The Financial Times reported that the armed forces of Ukraine have been struggling to stay online as they move into territory previously controlled by the Russians in the eastern parts of the country.
“Bad reporting by FT. This article falsely claims that Starlink terminals & service were paid for, when only a small percentage have been,” Mr Musk tweeted on 7 October. “This operation has cost SpaceX $80M & will exceed $100M by end of year. As for what’s happening on the battlefield, that’s classified.”
Last week, The Economist reported that Ukrainian officials think that Mr Musk’s peace plan came out of conversations with Mr Putin.
One Ukrainian official told the magazine that Ukraine has been having issues with Starlink since 30 September.
Oliver Carroll of The Economist tweeted that “Ukrainian officials told me Musk turned down request to use Starlink over Crimea. They would not tell me for what purpose”.
“Ukrainians started experiencing problems w Starlink shortly before Musk’s strange Twitter foray,” he added.
Mr Bremmer also wrote in the email that Mr Musk “appeared concerned about more direct threats from Putin. while he didn’t surface anything explicit with me, he did talk about Russian cyber capabilities and Russia’s potential to disrupt his satellites”.
The Financial Times Moscow bureau chief Max Seddon tweeted that “it seems Putin told Musk that he had no interest in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia – which he’s decided are Russia, except he’s not sure how much of it – except as logistical buffers for Crimea”.
Mr Musk’s peace plan was slammed by Ukrainians, with diplomat Andrij Melnyk tweeting: “F*** off is my very diplomatic reply to you.”
The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, posted another poll in response to Mr Musk.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on 4 October in a video call with the press that “it is very positive that somebody like Elon Musk is looking for a peaceful way out of this situation”.
“Compared to many professional diplomats, Musk is still searching for ways to achieve peace. And achieving peace without fulfilling Russia’s conditions is absolutely impossible,” he added, according to Reuters.
Mr Musk’s tweets have also been used in reports by Russian state media.
On 3 October, Mr Musk tweeted that “SpaceX’s out-of-pocket cost to enable and support Starlink in Ukraine is ~$80M so far. Our support for Russia is $0. Obviously, we are pro-Ukraine. Trying to retake Crimea will cause massive death, probably fail and risk nuclear war. This would be terrible for Ukraine and Earth”.
