Chechen Warlord Accuses Elon Musk of Remotely Disabling His Cybertruck in Combat Zone

COMMENTARY by Susan Katz Keating

“We had to tow the iron horse,” Ramzan Kadyrov said.

Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov said he had to tow his broken down Tesla Cybertruck from the combat zone in Ukraine, blaming Elon Musk for disabling the vehicle remotely.

“We had to tow the iron horse,” Kadyrov wrote on his Telegram channel. He accused Musk of immobilizing the truck. “How is that possible, Elon? Is that how it is done?”

The bombastic Kadyrov boasted in August that Musk had gifted him the Cybertruck – a claim the Tesla chief emphatically refuted.

READ MORE: Ramzan Kadyrov’s ‘Tesla Technical’: A Warlord and His Cybertruck

Kadyrov was thrilled with his Cybertruck.

In a post and video set to dramatic music last month on Telegram, Kadyrov praised the vehicle and Musk, adding that he would send the vehicle to war against Ukraine. In the video, a grinning Kadyrov stands in the vehicle’s pickup bed, alongside a heavy machine gun. He is draped in ammunition belts.

Despite warnings that the Cybertruck was not suited to plow through combat, minefields, and rough terrain, Kadyrov sent the vehicle to war.

There, Kadyrov wrote, “the machine coped with combat missions perfectly.” It did well, he said: “Demonstrated maneuverability and good protection for the crew.”

But the Cybertruck broke down. Hence the warlord’s plaintiff appeal: “How is that possible, Elon?”

Kadyrov answered his own question, accusing Musk of remotely turning off the controls.

Here at Soldier of Fortune, we think the answer is simple. You have to match the machine to the mission. In this case, you can’t expect a Cybertruck to perform like an MRAP. Otherwise, the machine will balk.

It’s unfortunate to learn that the high end vehicle wound up being pulled from the battlefield. But it surely will have some tales to tell, securely at home with the fleet.

Susan Katz Keating is the publisher and editor in chief at Soldier of Fortune.