The Trump Administration has been pushing both Ukraine and Russia to come to the negotiating table and work out a process for bringing a halt to the grinding war
Elon Musk has suggested sanctioning some of Ukraine’s wealthiest citizens as a way of bringing the Ukraine war to a sharp halt.
Musk, 53, who is the world’s richest man, has called for Ukraine’s oligarchs to be punished in a post on his X platform on Sunday. He wrote: “Place sanctions on the top 10 Ukrainian oligarchs, especially the ones with mansions in Monaco, and this will stop immediately. That is the key to the puzzle.”
It comes as the relationship between Washington and Kyiv remains soured, and as officials in the US debate whether they can continue to supply Ukraine with military aid as the bloody war rolls on. Musk’s post sparked uproar, with many accusing him and the Trump administration of failing to challenge Vladimir Putin’s military aggression.
The Tesla billionaire bizarrely stated that he had “challenged Putin to one on one physical combat over Ukraine”, and that his “Starlink system is the backbone of the Ukrainian army.” He said: “Their entire front line would collapse if I turned it off.”
Starlink uses satellites to provide broadband to people anywhere in the world, and has been invaluable to Ukraine since the start of the conflict in February 2022 as Putin rained down missiles on key infrastructure. He claims his motivation to the end the war is to avoid further death in a war that is locked in a stalemate, and one that he believes will see Ukraine “inevitably lose”.
Musk wrote: “What I am sickened by is years of slaughter in a stalemate that Ukraine will inevitably lose. Anyone who really cares, really thinks and really understands wants the meat grinder to stop. PEACE NOW!”
Last week, Trump said he he is considering sanctions and tariffs on Russia unless they came to the table to negotiate a peace deal soon. In a post on his Truth Social media platform, Trump said he his “strongly considering large scale Banking Sanctions, Sanctions, and Tariffs on Russia until a Cease Fire and FINAL SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT ON PEACE IS REACHED”.
He added another message urging both Ukraine and Russia to negotiate “before it is too late”. It comes after critics of the Trump administration said it remained somewhat tight-lipped on its overall condemnation of Putin’s Russia, while appearing to pressure Ukraine, which was attacked by Russia in 2014 before a full-scale invasion followed in 2022.
Trump paused intelligence sharing and military aid in Ukraine following a stunning clash with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office last week. In February, Trump also seemed to blame Ukraine for supposedly starting the war in 2022, despite Putin’s barbaric invasion.