Elon Musk doubles down on ‘pro-Putin’ tweets after challenge from Lindsey Graham

US senator says Musk’s suggestions are ‘dumb’ and calls for revisiting an electric vehicle tax

Elon Musk has doubled down on his “pro-Putin” tweets after US senator Lindsey Graham called the Tesla billionaire’s comments on the Ukraine invasion “dumb” on Twitter.

“With all due respect to Elon Musk – and I do respect him – I would suggest he needs to understand the facts of the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” Mr Graham said in a Twitter thread on Wednesday.

“Suggesting we end the Russian invasion by simply giving Russia parts of Ukraine – after all the suffering – is dumb. It is also an affront to the bravery of the Ukrainians fighting to defend their homeland,” he added.

The senator also said that the signing of the Budapest Memorandum in 1994 had led to Ukraine giving up its nuclear weapons arsenal in exchange for protection of its territorial integrity.

Mr Graham said the agreement was signed by Russia and included protecting Crimea and the Donbas “as part of Ukraine”.

“If you want peace in Ukraine – which we ALL do – simply demand Russian honour the boundaries they agreed to in 1994 and withdraw their forces,” he added.

“If Elon Musk and others want the world to continue to be in chaos, then by all means capitulate to Putin and reward his aggression.”

Mr Musk responded to the senator and said “some eastern portions” preferred Russia and that the “will of the people matters”.

“Assuming you believe that the will of the people matters, we should, in any given conflict region, support the will of those who live there,” Mr Musk replied.

“Most of Ukraine unequivocally wants to be part of Ukraine, but some eastern portions have Russian majorities and prefer Russia,” he added.

The senator also wrote in his Twitter thread about revisiting “the electric vehicle tax credit boondoggle”.

The billionaire tycoon replied back, saying Tesla “hasn’t had that consumer tax credit for years & we didn’t ask for this one – GM & Ford did”.

Mr Musk’s earlier Twitter poll on the Ukraine invasion angered president Volodymyr Zelensky, who called it “insane”.

He had earlier praised Mr Musk’s Starlink for its role in keeping Ukraine connected to the rest of the world.

The Tesla owner had, earlier in March, challenged Vladimir Putin to a fight for Ukraine.

“I hereby challenge Vladimir Putin to single combat,” he tweeted, using the Russian alphabet to write Mr Putin’s name. “Stakes are Ukraine,” he continued, writing the country’s name in its own language.

In a follow-up tweet, Mr Musk then posted a whole message in Russian. “Do you agree to this fight?” he wrote, tagging the Kremlin’s official English language Twitter account.

Mr Musk then replied to another Twitter user who suggested that the Russian president would easily win any fight.