Elon Musk has added wild new terms to his challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In what is perhaps the most bizarre story to surface online amid the crisis in Ukraine, 50-year-old Tesla CEO Musk took to Twitter yesterday to challenge Putin to a fight, with Ukraine on the line.
Taking to Twitter Monday morning, the billionaire shared several tweets written in both English and Russian.
In the first tweet, the SpaceX founder wrote: "I hereby challenge Владимир Путин to single combat," following by, "stakes are Україна".
A quick translation shows that "Владимир Путин" is Russian for "Vladimir Putin", and "Україна" is Russian for Ukraine. So Musk has literally issued a combat challenge to Putin, with the winner apparently getting Ukraine.
In a follow-up tweet, the Musk tagged the official Twitter account for the Kremlin, and asked: "Вы согласны на этот бой?" Which translates to "Do you agree to this fight?"
Replying to one Twitter user who asked if Musk had "thought this through", the billionaire responded: "I am absolutely serious."
Now, Musk has taken to Twitter once again to reiterate his challenge, and add some extra fuel to the proverbial fire.
In response to Musk’s initial tweet, Dmitry Rogozin - who is the head of Russia's space agency - shared lines from
Alexander Pushkin's poem 'Tale of the priest and of his workman Balda'.
Translated from Russian, he quoted: "You, little devil, are but young and frail. Do you compete with me? you will only fail; It is time and work wasted for you; Beat my brother, and you will see!"
Replying to Rogozin's tweet, Musk wrote: "I see you are a tough negotiator! Ok, you can have 10% more pay per view money."
The billionaire also included an meme of him side-by-side with Putin, with the headline "Choose your fighter". In the meme, a shirtless Putin has been photoshopped riding a bear and Musk can be seen brandishing a flamethrower.
And despite being a fake image, Musk then added: "[Putin] can even bring his bear."
Rogozin replied to Musk by telling him to "get off the toilet, then we'll talk", referencing one of the Tesla founder's previous tweets about penning his posts on the "porcelain throne".
If you would like to know how you can support the Ukrainian people at this time, click HERE to find a list of organizations and groups dedicated to helping those affected by this crisis.
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