(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Billionaire Elon Musk called out Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday for killing an American journalist who criticized his regime last year.
“Zelensky killed an American journalist!” Musk said on Twitter/X, referring to Gonzalo Lira, a U.S. reporter who died in a Ukrainian prison last January after nearly eight months of imprisonment.
Zelensky killed an American journalist!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 19, 2025
While Zelenskyy may not have been directly involved in Lira’s death, Musk is almost certainly correct about Lira having died due to his criticism of that regime.
Before his arrest and subsequent murder, Lira had been living in Ukraine for several years. He became prominent following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, when he began blogging about the war.
His harsh criticisms of the Ukrainian regime and analysis that Russia was winning the war made him a marked man.
Tucker Carlson, who covered the Lira story, released a statement on the tragic death.
“Gonzalo Lira, Sr. says his son has died at 55 in a Ukrainian prison, where he was being held for the crime of criticizing the Zelensky and Biden governments,” Carlson said.
The notion that Ukraine’s government killed Lira is not a right-wing conspiracy theory.
Independent reporter Alex Rubinstein said last year that he received a note from Lira’s father, who blamed Joe Biden and Zelenskyy for his son’s death.
“I cannot accept the way my son has died. He was tortured, extorted, incommunicado for 8 months and 11 days and the US Embassy did nothing to help my son,” Lira’s father said in the note. “The responsibility of this tragedy is the dictator Zelensky with the concurrence of a senile American President, Joe Biden.”
According to Rubenstein, Lira suffered from multiple ailments in prison in the months leading up to his death. Ukrainian authorities allegedly ignored Lira’s illnesses until it was too late.
Reporter Liam Cosgrove, who heroically questioned the State Department about Lira last year, also reported on the tragic death.
Never forget that Gonzalo Lira was a United States citizen, our government knew about it and our State Department allowed him to die.
" I will say in general, that we are aware of the report. We obviously support the exercise of freedom of speech anywhere in the world and I… pic.twitter.com/FH040tKAs4
— Woke Societies (@wokesocieties) January 12, 2024
“My pain is unbearable. The world must know what is going on in Ukraine with that inhuman dictator Zelensky,” Lira’s father told Cosgrove.
“IF YOU BELIEVE IN DEMOCRACY AND DECENCY, MAKE THE WORLD KNOW WHAT THEY HAVE DONE TO A DECENT AND VERY INTELLIGENT MAN WHO PREDICTED THAT UKRAINE WOULD NEVER WIN A WAR AGAINST RUSSIA AND THE FINANCIAL PUNISHMENTS WOULD BACKFIRE ON THE USA.”
Lira’s father also provided files on his son’s case, which can be found here. He said the files show how Biden greenlit his son’s death.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
