Wolfgang Ischinger

@elonmusk Elon, I want to tell you something as a Ukrainian. For years, many people in Ukraine admired and respected you. I was one of them. I personally saw you as a technological genius, a visionary, someone who was building the future while others were still living in the past. And that is exactly why your growing hostility toward Ukraine is so difficult for me to understand. Ukraine is not a perfect country. We have corruption, political failures, and many problems. Nobody denies that. But tell me, which country is perfect? Ukraine is also a country of incredibly talented engineers, scientists, entrepreneurs, developers, artists, and ordinary hardworking people. We build world-class technology, innovate under impossible conditions, value education, and have repeatedly shown the world what courage, resilience, and human dignity look like. We are a country that voluntarily gave up the world's third-largest nuclear arsenal in exchange for security assurances. We are a nation that stood up in 2014, during the Revolution of Dignity, because we refused to live under authoritarianism and Russian domination. We wanted freedom, democracy, and the right to choose our own future. And today, we are fighting for that same freedom. Every day, Ukrainian civilians are killed by Russian missiles, drones, and bombs. Children lose their parents. Parents bury their children. Entire cities are destroyed. Millions of lives have been shattered. These people are not dying because of Zelenskyy. They are not dying because of Ukrainian corruption. They are dying because Putin chose to invade another sovereign nation and continues to wage a war against its people, cities, culture, and identity. Yes, corruption must be fought. Yes, every dollar of international aid must be accounted for. Ukrainians themselves deserve transparency and justice more than anyone. But corruption does not justify invasion. Political failures do not justify bombing children. And no amount of criticism of Ukraine changes who crossed the border with an invading army. You seem to believe that giving up Donbas and Luhansk could bring peace. But why should we believe Putin would stop there? He already violated Ukraine's sovereignty after promising to respect it. He took Crimea in 2014. He fueled war in Donbas. And in 2022, he launched a full-scale invasion. What makes you think another territorial concession would finally satisfy him? History has shown us what happens when democracies believe they can secure lasting peace by rewarding an aggressor with someone else's land. We have seen this before, in Europe, in the years leading up to World War II. Peace built on surrender to a dictator is not necessarily peace. Sometimes it is simply an invitation to the next war. Elon, you are a man who talks about the future of humanity, about making civilization better, about taking humanity to Mars. But what kind of future are we building if we accept that powerful dictators can erase smaller nations simply because they have more weapons? Ukraine is not asking the world to pretend we are perfect. We are asking the world to recognize that we have the same right to exist, to be free, and to determine our future as Americans do. And one more thing: Ukrainians have never been your enemies. Many of us admired you, believed in your vision, and appreciated what Starlink made possible during the darkest days of this war. That is why your words hurt more than you might realize. You have enormous influence. Your voice can shape how millions of people understand this war. I still want to believe that the man who dreams of advancing humanity can recognize the humanity of people fighting simply to survive. It is not too late to stand on the right side of history. Not on Zelenskyy's side. Not on any politician's side. On the side of freedom. On the side of human life. On the side of a nation's right to exist. That is all we are asking for. 🇺🇦