Ukraine’s parliament and its speaker voted out billionaire Elon Musk today after posting a meme he made on social media platform X mocking President Volodymyr Zelensky’s calls for military aid from the West.

Musk who owns SpaceX, which provides vital Starlink satellite communication services for Ukraine’s defense effort, has at times angered Kiev with his remarks since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last February.

Early this morning, Musk posted a meme on platform X, formerly Twitter, showing Zelensky thinking with the following caption: “It’s been five minutes and you still haven’t asked for a billion dollars in help.”

The speaker of the Ukrainian parliament, Ruslan Stephanchuk, responded to Musk’s joke with his own post on X.

“The case when … (Elon Musk) tried to conquer space, but something went wrong and in 5 minutes he was punched in the sk…,” he wrote, apparently referring in SpaceX’s failed rocket launch in April.

The Ukrainian parliament on its official X page accused Musk of spreading Russian propaganda, posting its own meme with a photo of Musk with the following caption: “It’s been five minutes and you still haven’t spread Russian propaganda.”

The Ukrainian leader and his top aides have appealed to their allies throughout the war for billions of dollars in military aid to counter and repel the Russian invasion.

The adviser to the Ukrainian president Mykhailo Podoliak, who has criticized some of Musk’s statements in the past, said in a post on X that silence or irony about Ukraine serves Russian propaganda.

“Unfortunately, not everyone and not always, while they are important media figures, but are thousands of kilometers away from the epicenter of the war, are able to realize what the daily shelling and the screams of children who lose their parents are like».

Ukrainian officials have previously criticized Musk during the war for suggesting that Ukraine should consider giving up territory for peace, a position that Kiev has flatly rejected.

Zelensky visited the United States in September and met with top officials in an effort to secure further aid.

The US has been Ukraine’s biggest donor since the Russian invasion, providing tens of billions of dollars in military and economic aid.