Roscosmos boss calls to hold Elon Musk 'accountable' for supporting Ukraine 'fascists'

Elon Musk has responded after Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russia's federal space agency Roscosmos, sent a message to Russian media accusing him of supporting "fascist forces" in Ukraine.

The accusation by Rogozin, shared to Twitter by Musk, comes after the chief executive of SpaceX sent user terminals for its Starlink satellite-internet system to Ukraine in February at the request of officials in the war-torn country.

Rogozin alleged that a captured Ukrainian commander told Russian forces that the Starlink terminals were delivered "by the Pentagon" to "militants of the Nazi Azov Battalion" and by Ukrainian Marines in Mariupol.

"Elon Musk, thus, is involved in supplying the fascist forces in Ukraine with military communication equipment," Rogozin said. "And for this, Elon, you will be held accountable like an adult - no matter how much you'll play the fool."

The U.S. Agency for International Development, an independent federal agency, said in a press release in April that it, not the Pentagon, was responsible for delivering the Starlink terminals.

"The word 'Nazi' doesn't mean what he seems to think it does," Musk said in his response to Rogozin.

He added in another tweet: "If I die under mysterious circumstances, it's been nice knowin ya."

Musk's mother Maye shared her son's tweet and added: "That's not funny."

Russia has long suggested that the Azov Regiment, a volunteer paramilitary unit of the Ukrainian National Guard, has neo-Nazi ties.

In documents stemming from a 2018 court case unrelated to the war in Ukraine, an FBI agent also said the group was associated with neo-Nazi ideology and symbolism.

The Azov Regiment has fought back against such claims and said that the unit "was created precisely to fight Russian terrorism, which the Azov Regiment has been performing since 2014" after Russia's annexation of Crimea.

The unit has played a significant role in defending Mariupol during its monthslong siege since the start of the invasion in February.

Source: United Press International

Related Links
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Roscosmos
Rocket Science News at Space-Travel.Com

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