Elon Musk is asking Vladimir Putin to put his dukes up -- and not just that, but he's posing the challenge in the dictator's native language ... with the ultimate stakes at play.
The Tesla and SpaceX chief dared VP to a battle of brawn Monday morning, doing so over Twitter of course ... where he wrote, "I hereby challenge u0412u043bu0430u0434u0438u043cu0438u0440 u041fu0443u0442u0438u043d to single combat." EM followed up by saying ... "Stakes are u0423u043au0440u0430u0457u043du0430."
The translation is pretty simple, he's just asking Putin to rumble -- noting that the winner takes Ukraine.