More Russian useful idiot stuff from a writer who just a short while ago said Russia was winning, so don't bother helping Ukraine and surrender was a better option.
If Ukraine's sovereignty over 20% of its territory is contingent, here are other referenda Elon should suggest:
For Russia: Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Yakutia, Buryatia, Dagestan, Chechnya, Kalmykia, Karelia, Komy, Chuvash, Sakhalin, Magadan, St Petersburg, Kaliningrad (to become EU city states like Singapore)....only a few of a much longer list of the subjugated peoples under Russian rule through genocidal conquest.
For France: Catalogne, Pais Vasque, Corsica.
For Italy: Sicily, Sardegna, Val d'Aosta, Alto Adige.
For Spain: Catalunya, Basque Provinces, Mallorca.
For Belgium: Flemish provinces
For Turkey: the Kurdish east.
For Canada: Quebec (been there, done that, but why not again).
For the UK: Scotland, Wales.
For China: Sinjiang, Tibet, Taiwan, Hong Kong.
For the USA: the west coast (Pacifica), Alaska, the neo-confederate theocratic south (yes, please, please vote yes for secession so we can be a civilized country like Canada).
After all, it's just a poll.
Einstein: the Romans proved him wrong by creating a gigantic peaceful Mediterrenean free trade area that lasted for half a millenium--through preparation for war.
"Fighting on principle": Ukraine fights for the right to sovereign existence against an enemy that has loudly and genocidally proclaimed many times that it doesn't, as Israel did in 1948, 1956, 1967 and 1973. You're asking Ukraine to commit suicide so you're not afraid of a hypothetical full scale nuclear exchange that requires a long chain of intermediate steps and Putin being suicidal to occur.
The overwhelming probability now is that Russia's military collapses 1918 style before Putin orders deployment of a low yield tactical nuke that his commanders know is militarily useless.on a 1300 km front. Forbes Russia reported that 700000 Russian men have fled abroad since mobilization was declared. The mobiki are being dumped onto the side of roads and fields and told to buy their own sleeping bags, to buy and use tampons to treat bullet wounds. Every other phrase in Russian soldiers' intercepted conversations with their wives and mothers is "we're fucked, it's all fucked up!".
The asymmetry you ignore: If Russia stops fighting, the war ends. If Ukraine stops fighting, it ceases to exist.
Half-defeated empires always invent revanchist stab in the back narratives to explain defeat and come back for more. Only 1945 German-style Stunde Null (zero hour) teaches them to lose interest in empire. Russia's people still fuse Russian national identity with empire and a fictional civilizational superiority over its non-Russian periphery. Only utter catastrophe can teach them its futility.
If you don't get organized before you write, there is no hope of getting organized afterwards.
