Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been accused by Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov of “remotely disabling” his Cybertruck, which was equipped with machine guns and sent to the front lines of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
On Thursday, Kadyrov claimed in a post on Telegram that the vehicle was “performing well in combat,” but later took it down. This was followed by another post on Friday in which he said two more Tesla Cybertrucks had been sent to the front lines.
Kadyrov, known for his active involvement in Russia’s military operations in neighbouring Ukraine, claimed that the high-tech vehicle had to be removed from the battlefield because it was turned off “remotely”, reports CNN.
“What Elon Musk did was not good. He gives expensive gifts from the heart and then locks them away,” Kadyrov wrote in Russian.
Kadyrov, the head of the Chechen Republic, said the Cybertruck was sent to the Northern Military District. Although it “performed well” in combat missions, it was later written off and pulled up, Benzinga reports.
In another post on Friday, he said two more Cybertrucks had been sent to the “SVO (Ukraine war) zone.” This time, Kadyrov also shared a video of two Cybertrucks in a wooded area, each with a mounted machine gun. The video shows people wearing military uniforms in the trucks.
Kadyrov further claimed that the “remote shutdown” had no effect on the other two vehicles, which “are operating normally without any failures.”
“You couldn’t ask for a better ad for the Cybertruck,” he said.
The incident happened after the Chechen warlord shared a video of himself driving the Cybertruck in August this year and said it was a “gift” from Elon Musk. In that video, he was seen driving the vehicle in Grozny, the capital of Chechnya. He also thanked Musk for the Cybertruck and said it would be sent to the front soon.
However, the Tesla CEO denied sending the vehicle to Kadyrov and replied to an X user, “Are you really so retarded that you think I donated a Cybertruck to a Russian general? This is amazing.”
Musk did not, however, explain how Kadyrov gained access to the vehicle, sales of which have so far been reported to be limited to the US.
Both Tesla and Musk have not yet responded to Ramzan Kadyrov’s latest claims.
The fully electric Tesla Cybertruck was unveiled by Musk in Los Angeles in 2019, with a retail price starting at around $90,000.
