Amid the ongoing war, Space X CEO Elon Musk has challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin to a fight, declaring Ukraine is at stake. "I hereby challenge Vladimir Putin to single combat," Elon Musk wrote on Twitter.  

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In Cyrillic script and tagging the Kremlin's official Twitter account, Musk asked, "Do you agree to this fight?" When one of Musk's 77 million followers wrote that the Tesla founder might not have thought his challenge through, he said he was 'absolutely serious'. There was no immediate reaction from the Kremlin.

However, the tweet prompted a nearly immediate response from the head of the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, who has traded wars of words with Musk in the past. "You, little devil, are still young," Dmitry Rogozin, director general of Roscosmos since 2018, wrote. "Compete with me weakling; It would only be a waste of time. Overtake my brother first." 

Responding to Elon Musk's tweet, Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov tweeted, "I am sure that @elonmusk can send Putin to Jupiter." Fedorov has been running a fundraiser to launch Putin into space for weeks, saying the proceeds would go to repairing damaged Ukrainian infrastructure.  

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Meanwhile, the fourth round of talks between Russian and Ukrainian dignitaries remained inconclusive on Monday since Russia first launched an invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked Musk for 'supporting Ukraine with words and deeds'.

Elon Musk has provided internet facilities to Ukraine after the network connectivity was disrupted due to the military operation by Russia. Tesla's Starlink internet terminals were shipped to the war-hit zone after Mykhailo Fedorov, Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine, had sought help.