An online spat erupted after Radoslaw Sikorski accused the tech billionaire of profiting from “war crimes”
Tech billionaire Elon Musk has branded Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski a “drooling imbecile” in a fiery exchange on social media platform X.
The clash erupted after Sikorski accused Musk of “making money on war crimes” and questioned why he had not stopped “Russians from using Starlink.”
Sikorski earlier shared a report from the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW), which claimed Russian forces are increasingly using Starlink satellites operated by Musk’s SpaceX to guide drone attacks in Ukraine. ISW said that drones including BM-35, Shahed, and Molniya models are being fitted with Starlink systems to extend their range and improve accuracy.
“Hey, big man, why don’t you stop the Russians from using Starlinks?” Sikorski wrote on Tuesday.
Musk fired back on Wednesday: “This drooling imbecile doesn’t even realize that Starlink is the backbone of Ukraine’s military communications.”
The public clash is not the first between Musk and Sikorski. Last December, Musk called for the dissolution of the European Union, tweeting that “EU bureaucracy is slowly smothering Europe to death” and arguing that sovereignty should be returned to individual countries so governments can better represent their citizens.
Musk’s criticism of the bloc intensified after the EU fined X €120 million ($163 million) last week for allegedly failing to comply with transparency requirements under the bloc’s 2022 Digital Services Act. The tech entrepreneur, who is the platform’s majority owner, responded by likening the EU to “the Fourth Reich.”
Sikorski responded on social media to Musk’s call to dissolve the EU by telling him to “go to Mars.”
