WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th October, 2022) Tech mogul Elon Musk on Monday urged the public to support peace initiatives between Ukraine and Russia following the publication of a contentious poll on Twitter earlier in the day, in which he asked for opinions on a potential peace deal involving Ukrainian neutrality and new referenda to join Russia.
"Russia has >3 times (the) population of Ukraine, so victory for Ukraine is unlikely in total war. If you care about the people of Ukraine, seek peace," Musk said via social media.
Russia has only partially mobilized forces as part of its special military operation in Ukraine, with a full mobilization likely if the status of Crimea is jeopardized, Musk also said. Deaths on both sides would be "devastating" in such a scenario, Musk added.
Earlier on Monday, Musk published a poll asking for public opinion about a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia that would: conduct new, UN-supervised referenda in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions to determine whether the populations wish to join Russia; fully recognize Crimea as part of Russia; guarantee uninterrupted water supply to Crimea; and assure Ukrainian neutrality from organizations such as NATO.
The poll, which initially saw over half of respondents in favor of such a peace deal, was then subject to the "biggest bot attack" the entrepreneur has ever seen, Musk said in response to comments about Ukrainian spam account activity.
The poll received over a million responses after just two hours on the social media site.
Musk later published a second poll, more simply asking whether "the will of the people who live in the Donbas and Crimea" should decide whether they join Russia.
The polls have drawn criticism from senior Ukrainian officials, including Volodymur Zelenskyy, who himself published a poll asking whether the public likes Musk supporting Ukraine or Russia more.
Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany Andriy Melnyk also responded via social media, writing "(expletive) off is my very diplomatic reply," to Musk.
