Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov today accused Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of Tesla, of remotely disabling the Tesla Cybertruck electric all-terrain vehicle he had gifted him in August.

Kadyrov, who has ruled Chechnya with an iron fist for 17 years, appeared in a video in August driving the vehicle, which had a machine gun mounted on the back. He claimed that Musk gave him the car as a gift, which the businessman denied in a post on the X platform.

“Recently, Musk remotely disabled the Cybertruck,” Kadyrov complained in a Telegram post. “It is not kind of Elon Musk to act like this. He offers expensive gifts from the heart and then deactivates them remotely,” he added.

Kadyrov said the vehicle was used in military operations and was sent to Ukraine “where it did wonderfully”.

Kadyrov, 47, unconditionally supports Russian President Vladimir Putin and says he has sent thousands of troops to help the Russian military in Ukraine.