Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.
When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Elon Musk was hailed as one of Kyiv’s staunchest allies. A Russian malware attack crippled satellite communications across Ukraine, and officials frantically pleaded with the SpaceX founder to help.
Three years later, Musk has warned that Ukraine’s “entire front line would collapse” without SpaceX’s satellite terminals, highlighting their critical role in the country’s defence against Russia. He has also used his platform X to repeatedly attack Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky, sharing false claims and calling for elections to replace him.
It’s a sharp turnaround for the tech billionaire, who has joined the recent pile-on against the wartime leader, led by Donald Trump. This week, after X was targeted by a cyber attack, Musk blamed Ukraine. He then accused a US Democrat senator who visited Kyiv in a show of support of being “a traitor”.
Looking back to the first day of Russia’s invasion, Mykhailo Fedorov, deputy prime minister of Ukraine, used Twitter to urge Musk to send the country SpaceX satellite terminals. “We ask you to provide Ukraine with Starlink stations and to address sane Russians to stand,” he posted.
The billionaire obliged. “Starlink service is now active in Ukraine,” he replied. “More terminals en route.” On 26 February 2022, 500 Starlink terminals arrived in Ukraine.
Starlink’s system is part of SpaceX’s venture to provide high-speed internet to remote areas. It has been used extensively by the Ukrainian military throughout the war.
However, relations soon turned sour when the Tesla owner took it upon himself to help find an end to the war, suggesting Ukraine should cede some of its territory and hold new elections in areas annexed by Russia.
“This is highly likely to be the outcome in the end — just a question of how many die before then,” Musk wrote on Twitter, adding that another possible outcome would be nuclear war.
“Russia has >3 times population of Ukraine, so victory for Ukraine is unlikely in total war. If you care about the people of Ukraine, seek peace,” the billionaire tweeted hours later.
Ukrainian officials, including President Zelensky hit back at Musk, with Ukrainian diplomat Andriy Melnyk saying: “F*** off is my very diplomatic reply to you @elonmusk.”
Musk soon backed down. “SpaceX’s out of pocket cost to enable and support Starlink in Ukraine is ~$80M so far,” he tweeted. “Our support for Russia is $0. Obviously, we are pro-Ukraine.”
The X owner declared: “The hell with it. Even though Starlink is still losing money & other companies are getting billions of taxpayer $, we’ll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free.”
According to federal data analysed by The Independent, Musk’s own companies have been promised or awarded nearly $21 billion by the US government since 2008.
The billionaire has continued to voice his criticisms of Ukraine and targeted American aid to Ukraine, questioning its accountability and purpose. His sharpest barbs have been aimed at Zelensky, scoffing at the Ukrainian president’s pleas for more support and mocking his insistence that Kyiv should not be forced into negotiations.
Previously, Musk focused the majority of his posts on the war in Ukraine more broadly, but in the past few months he has turned his attention to Ukraine’s president – at the same time as Trump began to publicly lambast him.
Since February alone, Musk has posted dozens of times taking shots at Zelensky, with many of these posts urging him to call an election, or accusing him of destroying his reputation.
These posts since February alone have garnered over 600 million views, according to analysis from The Independent, and his posts on Ukraine and Zelensky overall have been viewed some 883 million times.
Musk has become an important figurehead in the second Trump administration, where he heads the US Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE. He has also used this position to wade into European politics and back far-right politicians across the continent. Musk often makes these remarks to his 219 million followers on X – the social media platform he purchased for $44bn in 2022.
Musk has been heavily criticised for allowing, and in some cases promoting, misinformation on the platform. An analysis published by the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate found that nearly three-quarters of a sample of false or misleading posts about the 2024 US elections did not display accurate notes correcting the record.
The billionaire has himself backed the far-right, pro-Russian, anti-Muslim party in Germany and called Sir Keir Starmer an “evil tyrant” who runs a “police state”.
In his most recent comments about the conflict, the X owner posted on his social media site: “Ukraine needs to hold an election. Zelensky would lose by a landslide.” The post has been viewed over 50 million times, with 250,000 likes, 45,000 reposts and 35,000 comments. As with many of Musk’s posts, the comments often repeat his talking points without challenge and spread the misinformation further.
Ukraine is unable to hold elections under the current martial law, imposed since Russia’s invasion. Ukrainian opposition leaders have dismissed the idea of holding a wartime election too. X’s fact-checking tool, “community notes”, has yet to correct the record over this misinformation.
On 3 March, Musk accused the embattled Ukrainian president of wanting a “forever war” with Russia. “This is evil,” he added. In a separate post, he said Zelensky had a choice to “seek peace” with Moscow but was opting for bloodshed. “This is cruel and inhumane.” His posts about Ukraine on 2-3 March have garnered over 260 million views on X.
In February, he repeated an unsubstantiated claim from Trump that Zelensky’s approval rating is 4 per cent. This time, his own fact-checking tool corrected him. In response so he vowed to “fix” it and claimed the fact-checking system he generally celebrates was being “gamed” by governments and the media.
Mitali Mukherjee, acting director at the Reuters Institute, warned misinformation has become “a useful tool by those in positions of power to disabuse news reportage that is critical of their actions.”
Research from the institute found that 72 per cent of US online news users are concerned about distinguishing real from fake content. Platforms like X and TikTok are seen as the most challenging for finding trustworthy information.
X has seen declining user numbers in the last year. Last April, X had a reported 611 million global users, which dropped to 588 million users in September. The losses have been greatest in the US and UK.
“While the idea of ‘regulating’ the problem is tempting, this is neither an online only nor an ‘X’ only challenge,” Ms Mukherjee told The Independent. “Media, and social media, are often blamed for polarization even though much of that narrative is pushed by powerful actors.”
The Independent has contacted Elon Musk and X for comment.
