It is? Giving up all captured areas except for Crimea (given that a UN lead referendum would result in the other regions staying in Ukraine)? That sounds like a pretty big failure to me.
- That the remaining residents even have the legal/moral right to have such an election.
- That such an election could possibly be morally conducted with armed men camped on your land and the unburied dead scattered on the landscape without the specter of intimidation.
- That such results would be valid given it would be conducted after the Russians drove off or tortured and murdered half the population that didn't agree
- That anyone could possible trust the Russians to conduct it no matter what oversight was provided
- That they would respect the results if they went their way
It re-contextualizes the discussion from an immoral war criminal is slaughtering his neighbor, raping and pillaging their lands, attempting to erase their identity and attempting to cover his tracks with sham elections to somehow the sham elections are a path to peace between warring neighbors if only we conducted them more fairly.
They cannot possibly be conducted fairly and Musk's statement was literally the most stupid and offensive thing he has ever said in his life.