Elon Musk accuses Zelensky of killing American journalist

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, who also functions as a senior advisor to U.S. President Donald Trump, has publicly accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of being responsible for the death of an American journalist.

"Zelensky killed an American journalist!" Musk declared Wednesday on his X (formerly Twitter) account, shortly after Trump labeled the Ukrainian leader a "dictator without elections" and warned that he "better move fast or he is not going to have a country left."

Musk’s remarks followed claims that Gonzalo Lira, a Chilean-American journalist critical of Zelensky, was killed in Ukraine last year. Lira’s death has been a subject of controversy, with allegations that the Ukrainian government targeted him due to his outspoken stance against its leadership.

Trump’s Escalating Criticism of Ukraine

Trump’s comments came in response to Zelensky’s sharp rebuke of the president’s suggestion that Ukraine "should have never started" the war with Russia.

Zelensky accused Trump of falling victim to a "Russian disinformation bubble", leading to heightened tensions between Kyiv and Washington.

Despite Ukrainian and European leaders being left out of the process, Trump has claimed that his administration is making significant progress toward negotiating an end to the three-year-long war between Ukraine and Russia. Trump criticized Europe for failing to broker peace, arguing that the U.S. was now successfully leading the effort.

As the U.S. edges closer to potentially redefining its support for Ukraine, Trump, Musk, and other influential voices in the United States continue to challenge Zelensky’s strategy that was enabled and supported by the previous Biden administration.