Elon Musk says he has not spoken with Vladimir Putin since the Russian president sent his troops into Ukraine. But the billionaire’s warm words for a tweet from a top Kremlin official drew him into an unusual back-and-forth over the war.

The SpaceX chief executive officer praised a snarky post by Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday about the UK Prime Minister Liz Truss, known for her tough stance against Russia’s invasion and strong support for Ukraine.

Medvedev was referring to a Daily Star online campaign that had run for about a week asking if Truss would beat the 10-day shelf life of a lettuce. She didn’t.

Musk quickly followed up with a barbed question for Medvedev, a former president who’s now deputy head of Russia’s Security Council and known for his often-threatening posts in social media.

Bakhmut is a city in the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine where Russian troops have struggled for weeks to make headway against Kyiv’s forces.

Musk’s Twitter comments earlier this month suggesting Ukraine negotiate with Russia and cede territory to end the war drew sharp criticism from Kyiv and its allies. Since then, he’s been undaunted, repeatedly taking to social media to argue that some kind of compromise needs to be reached - probably allowing Putin to keep Crimea, which he annexed in 2014 - in order to keep him from using nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

Musk has rejected allegations he’s just a messenger for the Russian leader.

But he’s further alienated Ukraine and its supporters with threats to cut funding to Starlink terminals used by Kyiv’s military in areas that lack cellular service. Musk said SpaceX was losing US$20mil a month providing satellite Internet services and called on others to step in.

In the end, Musk reversed course and said he would continue to fund Starlink in Ukraine.

 - Bloomberg