Summary

Elon Musk accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of “feeding off the dead bodies of soldiers” and falsely claimed he is “despised” by Ukrainians, echoing Donald Trump’s rhetoric.

Musk also threatened changes to X’s Community Notes after fact-checkers refuted his claims. Trump and Musk’s remarks align with Russian propaganda, prompting European leaders to reaffirm support for Ukraine.

Observers rejected claims that Ukraine is a dictatorship, emphasizing that its wartime election suspension is both legal and justified, similar to the UK’s approach during World War II.

Critics argue Musk’s stance undermines free speech and factual discourse while aiding Kremlin narratives against Ukraine.

  • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    arrow-down
    21
    ·
    11 hours ago

    and falsely claimed he is “despised” by Ukrainians

    Doesn’t really seem false by now. Zaluzhny was more popular and seemed to have some plan. Zelensky used the fact that said plan seemed a compromise worse than Ukraine can get at the time, to press Zaluzhny out. Ukraine really has spent some time postponing elections.

    Also let’s remember that under Poroshenko Ukraine was having steady military preparation and buildup, Zelensky didn’t add much and Zelensky’s approach to conflict, if anyone remembers, was almost pro-Russian (as in “we just have to stop shooting and talk”, and yes, it doesn’t seem there was a better plan). Also for two weeks or more before the invasion it was in all the news that US and other governments think Russia is going to invade Ukraine.

    Ukraine could have, you know, mobilized, taken this seriously.

    I’m of an opinion that Zelensky initially was a Russian trojan horse for Ukraine, similarly to Pashinyan for Armenia. Except Pashinyan did his job well and Armenia is on its knees, while Zelensky kinda failed to do that because of existence of well-prepared (at that point in time) military and western support.

    This may seem satanic, but since Russia is grinding to shit its own troops in Ukraine, suggesting that a government or a faction interested in their country becoming again a Russian puppet is grinding its troops intentionally too - doesn’t seem so stupid, I’ll explain why - the military is basically where most of patriotic and volunteer work went in Ukraine since 2014. It’s in some sense an institution such a government would try to damage as badly as possible.

    Also notice how rumors about corruption in Ukraine’s military (not taking about the rest of the government, that part is not interesting, it’s an ex-Soviet state) have been building up slowly in correlation with that military becoming less professional and weary, because of slowly losing competent people as direct casualties, by disability or even burnout.

    OK, that’s my impression.

  • bruhssa@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    17
    ·
    3 hours ago

    I don’t want to call for anything illegal here but Elon Musk has to go somehow or some way. He’s a danger to the western world. He is compromisable and a facist.

  • StormMission907@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    1 hour ago

    Why is anybody listening to that little Muskrat? Guy needs to be put in a rocket and shipped to Mars so we dont have to listen to his manic rantings. I feel sorry for his 12 kids .

  • pivot_root@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    23 hours ago

    Musk also threatened changes to X’s Community Notes after fact-checkers refuted his claims.

    The only part of this that surprises me is that it didn’t happen sooner. Musk is so thin-skinned that he’s indistinguishable from an anatomical model of a human.

    • volvoxvsmarla @lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      32 minutes ago

      Best case scenario this will not end well for Elon. Worst case scenario this will not end well for the world and we’ll all die in nuclear war or something.

  • thefluffiest@feddit.nl
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    89
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    20 hours ago

    If by now you’re still on X, you’re actively part of the problem. No more excuses.

  • Tarquinn2049@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    54
    ·
    22 hours ago

    He knows we can talk to the people of Ukraine, doesn’t he? Like, it’s not like the olden days where very few people ever directly communicated with people from other countries. You can’t just pretend we don’t know how they feel about stuff.

    Elections are suspended because no one has time to “run an election”. Basically, that is not at all what is important right now. A much larger and more powerful country is literally trying to erase them. It’s so far failing to do so in a staggering way that is probably super embarrassing. Ukraine is not doing OK in the grander sense, of course, but they are doing way better than anyone would have expected, especially the Ukrainian people. Zelensky has managed to maintain both support and respect, but more importantly, morale.

    Zelensky is a big problem to Russia, you know how you can tell? Listen to Elon and Trump talk about him…

    • IsoKiero@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      17
      ·
      20 hours ago

      Elections are suspended because no one has time to “run an election”.

      And also (if I’ve understood correctly) it’s straight up impossible by Ukrainian laws to run elections when martial law is active. They’ll hold democratic elections eventually and choose the next president but until then Zelenskyi is sitting president. Things run just like their laws mandate.

      In some other country there’s memecoin agency operating without any legal oversight with considerable power, maybe look on to that first…

      • SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        19 hours ago

        It´s why they want a cease fire and a peace agreement, so martial law stops and elections can start again. That doesn´t do away with the whole discussion about what regions of Ukraine are then valid to do an election, such as Crimea, or what to do with all the refugees in other countries.

  • 0ops@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    19 hours ago

    It’s literally the geopolitical version of “Why are you hitting yourself? Why are you hitting yourself?”