Musk drew the ire of Ukrainians last month when he posted a tweet proposing a Ukraine-Russia peace deal that included formally annexing Crimea to Russia and holding UN-supervised elections in four Russian-held regions in Ukraine. Musk later denied a report that he had spoken to Vladimir Putin before unveiling the plan, which he had presented as a Twitter poll. In an interview with the Guardian, Olena Zelenska said that Ukraine is grateful for Musk’s Starlink satellite broadband service. He said: “We have him to thank for Starlink because it still works. It still works and we hope it will help us win by making our efforts smarter.” Speaking at the Web Summit in Lisbon through an interpreter, he added: “And, of course, you know, he supported Ukraine from the very first day and that’s why Ukrainians really admired him. So it was extremely sensitive for us to read the tweet. Let’s be honest, even the smartest person can’t say the smartest things 24/7. There are mistakes. And we hope it was an accidental mistake.” Zelenska’s husband, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, had responded to Musk at the time with his own poll asking “which Elon Musk” readers preferred: the one who supported Ukraine or the one who supported Russia. Musk’s relationship with the country was further strained last month when he suggested he could not continue to fund the country’s use of Starlink, which has become a key communications network for Ukraine’s armed forces. However, Tesla’s CEO later said he would maintain the payments, tweeting that “we’ll just keep funding the Ukrainian government for free.” Musk reached out for comment. Zelenska also addressed the issue of social media, which has become a key factor in the information war between Ukraine and Russia. He said Ukraine, whose use of platforms such as Twitter has helped rally support in the West, “knows how to manage” social media and has used it to “make sure people know the truth”. But she accused Instagram owner Meta of “double standards” by putting one of her posts, which shows the aftermath of the Russian attack that killed a four-year-old Ukrainian girl she knew, under a sensitivity screen. “What we have to do is show the facts, show the pictures that unfortunately show that these atrocities are happening,” he said. “But the companies that are supposed to be spreading this truth are trying to hide the content.” Meta declined to comment. It is understood that Instagram protected the photo from direct public view due to its graphic nature. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Asked about life in Kyiv with her husband and two children, Zelenska said: “We live day to day and we’re used to the fact that we can’t plan anything more than several hours ahead.” He added: “We know how to change our plans very quickly, to go from real life to online [schooling] or whether to go to the bomb shelters. We have all become crisis managers. And very good crisis managers too.” In a speech at the Web Summit on Monday, Zelenska told attendees that their industry has become a “battlefield in Russia’s war against Ukraine.” Zelenska, who has set up a foundation to support healthcare, education and humanitarian aid in her country, said innovations such as advances in prosthetic limbs could help Ukrainians injured in the conflict. On Tuesday, Zelensky said Russian forces had “severely damaged” about 40 percent of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, particularly thermal and hydropower plants. Zelenska said “high-capacity power banks”, similar to supercharged versions of the packs used to charge mobile phones, could be a technological solution to help Ukraine. “We are facing an energy crisis in Ukraine after the continuous attacks on the energy infrastructure. And this means that Ukrainians buy generators, power banks, batteries. Maybe it’s time for people to think about creating high capacity power banks. It could be an interesting and much-needed startup,” he said.
