Chechen warlord accuses Elon Musk of 'remotely disabling' his Cybertruck

Leader of Russia's Chechnya region Ramzan Kadyrov and what is said to be a Tesla Cybertruck equipped with a machine gun in Grozny, Russia, in a video published on August 17. (Ramzan Kadyrov/Telegram/Reuters via CNN Newsource)

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has accused Tesla CEO Elon Musk of “remotely disabling” his Cybertruck, which had been sent to the frontline of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Kadyrov claimed Thursday that the vehicle, which he said had been outfitted with a machine gun and was “performing well in combat,” had been shut down, adding Friday that he had sent two additional Tesla Cybertrucks to the frontline.

The Chechen warlord, known for his loyalty to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his active involvement in Russia’s ongoing military operations in Ukraine, shared footage of himself in August driving a Cybertruck and claimed it was a gift from Musk. In the video, a smiling Kadyrov was shown driving through an empty square in Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, and thanking Musk for the vehicle “soon to be sent to the front.”

Musk, however, firmly denied sending it. “Are you seriously so retarded that you think I donated a Cybertruck to a Russian general?” he wrote at the time on X, the social media platform he owns.

Kadyrov repeated his claim earlierthis week as he lamented that the high-tech vehicle had to be towed from the battlefield, saying: “What Elon Musk did was not nice. He gives expensive gifts from the heart and then remotely switches them off.”

“Two more Cybertrucks have been sent to the SVO (Ukraine war) zone,” the warlord added Friday, posting a video of two Tesla trucks in a forested area, each armed with mounted machine guns. The video shows men in military uniforms firing from the roofs of the vehicles.

“The remote shutdown did not affect these vehicles. They are operating normally, without any failures,” he said on Telegram. “You couldn’t ask for better advertising for the Cybertruck.”

CNN has reached out to Tesla (TSLA) for comment on his claims.

Musk unveiled the Tesla Cybertruck, which is fully electric as all of the company’s vehicles, in 2019 in Los Angeles. Retail prices for the Cybertruck start from around US$90,000 in the United States.

Kadyrov, who was installed as Chechen leader by Putin, has been criticized for decades for alleged human rights violations. The US State Department sanctioned him in 2020, saying it “has extensive credible information” that Kadyrov was responsible for “gross violations of human rights,” including torture and extrajudicial killings. He has also been sanctioned by the United Kingdom and European Union.