Tesla CEO Elon Musk challenges President Vladimir Putin to 'single combat' over Ukraine

Telsa CEO Elon Musk has challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin to a "one on one" combat with Ukraine being the stakes.

“I hereby challenge Vladimir Putin to single combat,” the billionaire tweeted, using the Russian alphabet to write Putin’s name.

“Stakes are Ukraine,” he further wrote in English.

In a follow-up tweet, Mr Musk then posted a whole message in Russian. “Do you agree to this fight?”, he wrote, tagging the Kremlin’s official English Twitter account.

After hundreds of replies, Musk went even further, tweeting: "I am absolutely serious. If Putin could so easily humiliate the west, then he would accept the challenge. But he will not."

Musk has been an active supporter of Ukraine since the conflict began between the two neighbouring nations. He has helped Ukraine with Starlink satellites upon Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's request.

The move came in response to a plea by the Ukrainian deputy prime minister to help the country keep access to the internet amid the Russian invasion.

SpaceX delivered its first batch of Starlink terminals to Ukraine in March after the invasion while the second shipment of Starlink terminals was dispatched earlier last week.

Satellite internet services which are known as Starlink can be useful in parts of the world where people cannot easily access conventional internet providers, whether because of technical limitations, government restrictions or other barriers.