Elon Musk has taken another swipe at Volodymyr Zelensky as the row between the US and Ukraine intensifies.
Mr Musk continued his attack on the Ukrainian president with a post on his X platform in which he repeated Donald Trump‘s claim Mr Zelensky has an approval rating of 4%. The US president also called his Ukrainian counterpart a dictator for not holding elections.
The Tesla Chief Executive posted on X: “In reality, he is despised by the people of Ukraine, which is why he has refused to hold an election.”
He added: “I challenge Zelensky to hold an election and refute this. He will not… President Trump is right to ignore him and solve (sic) for peace independent of the disgusting, massive graft machine feeding off the dead bodies of Ukrainian soldiers.”
Mr Musk’s latest criticism echoed false Kremlin claims Mr Zelensky is a dictator without legitimacy.
Mr Zelensky was elected to a five-year term in 2019, and the next presidential elections had been scheduled for spring 2024. But Ukrainian law prohibits parliamentary or presidential elections during a state of martial law, so Mr Zelensky has remained in office.
In terms of his popularity, Mr Zelensky “retains a fairly high level of public trust” of 57%, according to a report released on Wednesday by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology. His ratings have, however, been dropping.
Mr Musk’s comments were in response to a post from an anonymous X account which sought to cast doubt on the Institute’s polling.
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