Elon Musk continues to closely monitor the Russian war in Ukraine, which is now in its fourteenth month.
The billionaire entrepreneur remains obsessed with this conflict in which he plays an important role by providing Starlink, a satellite internet access service, to Ukraine, whose communications infrastructure has been mostly destroyed by Russian bombing.
On the ground, the situation remains unchanged despite numerous maneuvers on both sides and a catastrophic human and material toll. The allies of Kyiv are meeting in Germany to discuss the subject of ammunition and means of air defense to be provided to the Ukrainian forces. Organized at the American base in Ramstein, the meeting will also take place in the presence of the NATO boss, who has just returned from Kyiv, where he met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
No Major Change
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg confirmed on Friday that Zelensky had accepted his invitation to the next NATO summit, to be held in Vilnius, Lithuania next July. Zelensky, who received him on Thursday in Kiev, told Stoltenberg that he needed "something more than the format of our current relations" and hoped that a date would be set for Ukraine's accession to NATO. Russian President Vladimir Putin views this as a threat to the national security of Russia.
The Kremlin, for its part, once again denied on Friday any intention to launch a new mobilization campaign to increase its troops in Ukraine, after reports that the army has summoned students to join. "There are no discussions in the Kremlin about any wave of mobilization," Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for the Russian presidency, told reporters.
In September 2022, the Kremlin announced the mobilization of several hundred thousand men to give new impetus to its offensive in Ukraine. Since then, rumors of a new wave of summons have been rife, especially since Putin enacted a hastily-approved law last week to facilitate the mobilization.
Musk has believed for several months that there is no other viable outcome less costly in human lives than peace. He thus proposed last October a controversial peace plan which was rejected by Ukraine and its NATO supporters. This proposal adopted most of the Russian demands in order to end the war. It was therefore no surprise that the Ukrainians and their allies violently criticized it and rejected it.
This episode left an open wound in the relationship between Musk and Ukraine.The billionaire, who had appeared as a hero, was suddenly criticized sometimes with very strong words, like the “f**k off” used by the Ukrainian ambassador to Germany.
But that didn't discourage him. In February, he and his friends attacked American diplomats, accusing them of having become warmongers and of forgetting their primary mission, which is to negotiate agreements and not to promote war.
Musk singled out the U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, Victoria Nuland.
"Nobody is pushing this war more than Nuland," the billionaire said on Feb. 22.
'Yeah'
"I would start with a basic fact here .... which is if this war is to end, it could end tomorrow if Vladimir Putin chose to end it and to withdraw his troops" Nuland responded. "So, this is not about us. This is about choices that Vladimir Putin has made to try to bite off pieces of his neighbor. And if we allow this as the United States, if we don't support the victim in this aggression, then this aggression will be replicated all over the planet in the years to come."
It is in this context that Musk has just voiced his support for the discussions between China and France to find a peace plan. He did this by approving a post from a Twitter account he regularly interacts with and follows.
"As much as we all like to criticize Macron, I appreciate that he seems to be one of the only elected leaders right now who is at least trying to get Ukraine and Russia to talk and figure out how to end this," the Twitter user said, referring to French President Emmanuel Macron. "It might go nowhere, but I am glad that Macron is trying."
"Yeah," Musk agreed.
Bloomberg News recently revealed that diplomatic exchanges between France and China are actively continuing after Macron's controversial visit to Beijing in early April.
Macron is seeking to make up for a series of disappointing diplomatic moves, by offering China a peace plan he thinks could get Russia and Ukraine to negotiate, according to Bloomberg News. The head of state has instructed his diplomatic adviser, Emmanuel Bonne, to work on the subject in collaboration with the highest Chinese diplomat, Wang Yi.
During his trip to China, the French president had already put the Russia-Ukraine war on the table and had asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to meet Zelensky. This attempt has so far been unsuccessful.
Paris is convinced that Beijing has a role to play, because of its alliance with Moscow and because China has the power to influence, if not pressure, Putin. China had also presented a peace plan at the end of February, to Russia's advantage, but for which Kyiv had only expressed its satisfaction to see China trying to mediate.
