In brief

• President Zelensky said he could not tell whether Elon Musk's post about Russian conscripts was serious or a joke.
• Zelensky said Ukraine dislikes Musk's approach to the war, especially his remarks about Russian soldiers dying.
• Musk had urged sympathy for Russian conscripts and also claimed Ukrainian elites profit from aid, a claim parliament speaker Stefanchuk answered by mentioning Grok.

Zelensky questions Musk's tone

President Volodymyr Zelensky commented on a recent post by Elon Musk on the X platform, in which the American billionaire expressed sympathy for Russian conscripts ("Це не ті жарти": Зеленський відреагував на заяву Маска про "бідних призовників РФ без права вибору" – Espreso) (Зеленський різко відреагував на заяви Ілона Маска про війну в Україні – TSN). Zelensky said he did not know whether Musk was serious or joking. He said he did not understand such jokes, although he said he understands humour very well.

Dispute over the war's human cost

Zelensky said Ukraine does not like Musk's way of reflecting on the war, particularly when he considers how Russia is losing soldiers. He said Russia is an aggressor and that it is better for it to lose soldiers who are on foreign territory rather than on their own land.

What Musk wrote

Musk called for the killing on both sides to stop and urged sympathy for what he described as poor Russian conscripts, whom he said had no choice but to fight and die under drone strikes. He had also recently claimed that Ukrainian elites were profiting from international aid, and that part of US taxpayers' money was being used to finance political campaigns in the United States. Ukrainian parliament speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk responded by referring to Musk's chatbot, Grok.