Lindsey Graham says Elon Musk ‘needs to understand the facts’ amid Twitter spat with the billionaire over the Ukraine war

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Billionaire Elon Musk is feuding with Sen. Lindsey Graham on Twitter over the Ukraine war, particularly whether Russia should be allowed to annex Ukrainian territories. 

“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,” Graham tweeted on Wednesday.

Graham’s post came after Musk’s Twitter post on Tuesday in which he shared his idea for peacefully resolving the conflict. Sharing a poll that appeared to parrot Kremlin talking points on Russia’s invasion, Musk called for his followers to vote on whether his list of conditions — which included re-doing the sham referendums in the four Ukrainian regions annexed by Russia and ensuring Ukraine’s neutrality in the region — would work to achieve this goal.

The South Carolina senator objected to Musk’s position, tweeting 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.” 

Graham also said that Musk’s plan would be akin to capitulating to Putin and rewarding aggression, which would cause more “chaos” in the world.

In response, Musk wrote that if the senator believed that “the will of the people matters,” those who live in Ukraine should be given the right to choose the country they belong to.

“Most of Ukraine unequivocally wants to be part of Ukraine, but some eastern portions have Russian majorities and prefer Russia,” Musk said, sharing an electoral map from 2012 that showed a political split in Ukraine. 

However, journalist Aaron Rupar pointed out in response to Musk that the 2012 electoral map pre-dated aggressive actions in the region from Russia, including the 2014 annexation of Crimea. 

Musk has received a considerable amount of backlash for posting the poll. 

Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, Andrij Melnyk, blasted Musk in a tweet on Tuesday that stated: “Fuck off is my very diplomatic reply to you.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also hit back at Musk, posting a poll of his own that asked if people like a Musk who supports Russia or a Musk who supports Ukraine more.

For his part, Musk insisted in a separate tweet on Tuesday that he is “obviously” pro-Ukraine and that his company, SpaceX, has spent millions funding Starlink to keep the internet going in Ukraine.