‘Single combat’: Elon Musk’s incredible challenge to Putin

The world’s richest man has thrown down the gauntlet to Russian President Vladimir Putin to decide the fate of Ukraine by very strange means.

Filthy rich tech guru Elon Musk has thrown down the gauntlet to Russian President Vladimir Putin to decide the fate of Ukraine via a Game of Thrones-style trial of “single combat”.

The Tesla CEO has already had plenty to say about the conflict and even sent millions of dollars worth of Starlink Rapid Deployment Kits to assist in Ukraine’s emergency communications.

However, he has stepped up the rhetoric with a series of bombastic social media posts overnight, that included memes about the invasion and references to Macbeth.

As Russian and Ukrainian negotiators met for another round of talks, Musk tweeted the direct challenge to Putin.

“I hereby challenge Vladimir Putin to single combat. Stakes are Ukraine,” he said, using Russian and Ukrainian language for effect.

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Elon Musk has laid down a challenge for Vladimir Putin. Picture: Apu Gomes/Getty Images

He later tweeted directly at the Kremlin, asking if they “agree to this fight”.

When one of Musk’s 77 million followers wrote that the Tesla founder might not have thought his challenge through, Musk said he was “absolutely serious.”

“If Putin could so easily humiliate the west, then he would accept the challenge. But he will not,” he added.

There was no immediate reaction from the Kremlin.

I hereby challenge
Владимир Путин
to single combat

Stakes are Україна

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 14, 2022

The bizarre challenge was part of a flurry of tweets Musk, 50, sent out over the course of three hours, including the oft-quoted Shakespeare line from Macbeth: “By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes.”

In another tweet, he posted a meme of a character from the Netflix show Narcos sitting on a porch swing that reads, “Netflix waiting for the war to end to make a movie about a black Ukraine guy falls in love with a transgender Russian soldier.”

Musk has been tweeting about the Russia-Ukraine war since it began more than three weeks ago.

After launching another 48 Starlink satellites into orbit on Friday, Musk trolled the head of Russian space agency Roscosmos, Dimitry Rogozin, who said Americans would be denied access to the country’s rockets and would have to “fly on something else like their broomsticks”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Grigorenko. Picture: Mikhail Klimentyev/SPUTNIK/AFP

Musk replied to a screenshot of Rogozin’s remarks by linking to a previous launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket along with the phrase “American broomstick” and four American flags.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked Musk for providing internet connectivity in Ukraine and personally invited him to visit the country.

The Telsa founder responded to a plea from Kyiv plea by activating the Starlink internet service in Ukraine and sending equipment to help bring connectivity to areas hit by Russian military attacks.

The South African-born Musk had previously offered his support for Kyiv, tweeting “Hold strong Ukraine” this month while also offering “my sympathies to the great people of Russia,

Musk often raises eyebrows on Twitter.

In February he accused the US stock market regulator, which had imposed fines and restrictions on Musk and Tesla, of trying to muzzle his free speech.

And he compared Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Adolf Hitler in a message supporting opponents of government Covid restrictions.

He later deleted the post.