Tesla CEO Elon Musk challenges Vladimir Putin to a fight over Ukraine

As Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues, Vladimir Putin might soon find himself squaring off against an unexpected opponent - Elon Musk. The Tesla CEO took to Twitter on Monday and challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin for a one-on-one fight with the stakes being Ukraine. However, it remains to be seen whether Putin will actually accept Musk's challenge. 

"I hereby challenge Vladimir Putin to single combat," Elon Musk wrote on Twitter, using the Russian alphabets to spell Vladimir Putin. "Stakes are Ukraine" he added. Musk wrote Ukraine in the Russian alphabet as well. 

Musk's tweet has gone viral and has received over 80,000 likes and over 17,000 thousand retweets. Musk is known for sharing memes and cracking jokes on Twitter, so there is a possibility that this "challenge" could be a prank. 

 In another Tweet, Musk asked the official Twitter handle of the President of Russia and asked if they are agreeing to the fight. "Do you agree to this fight? @KremlinRussia_E," Musk asked in Russian. 

Musk had earlier provided Ukraine with internet connectivity through the Starlink satellites. 

Elon Musk had said that his company SpaceX's Starlink satellite broadband service had been activated in Ukraine. The move came after the country's Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov urged him to provide satellite-based communications to help resist Russia's invasion.

"Starlink service is now active in Ukraine," Musk tweeted, adding "more terminals en route."

Starlink is one of the many companies launching small satellites to provide broadband internet services in areas where the terrestrial network is hard to set up. It enables the satellites to operate without sending data back to a ground station. Instead, the data is beamed between the satellites using laser links, enabling faster transfer speeds.

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