Russian state media site RT suggested on Monday that the lack of support for Tesla CEO Elon Musk's peace Russia-Ukraine war peace proposal was due to interference by pro-Ukraine bots and trolls on Twitter.
Elon Musk faced severe backlash as he posted a Twitter poll asking citizens of occupied areas of eastern Ukraine recently annexed by the Kremlin and Crimea to decide if they want to live in Russia or Ukraine. Ukraine's President Zelensky responded by posting a poll to Twitter asking if people preferred Elon Musk who supports Ukraine....or Russia.
As Elon Musk asked his followers to vote in the poll, Russian state-controlled site RT said that pro-Ukrainian Twitter users were manipulating the results. Using Elon Musk's follow-up tweet in which Tesla boss said “Indeed. Biggest bot attack I’ve ever seen" RT validated the presence of trolls changing the results of the polls.
In a later tweet, Elon Musk said that his company SpaceX’s out-of-pocket costs for providing Ukraine with Starlink dishes stands at around $80 million adding that the company is “obviously” pro-Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin last week proclaimed four Ukrainian regions—Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson—as part of Russia in a move considered illegitimate by Ukraine and the world.