Elon Musk suggested delaying his $44bn takeover of Twitter on the grounds that it “wouldn’t make sense to buy Twitter if we’re heading into world war three”, according to texts between the billionaire entrepreneur and his bankers revealed in a court hearing.

During a three-hour session in a Delaware Chancery court on Tuesday, the social media company shared a message exchange between Musk and Morgan Stanley banker Michael Grimes, as it sought to argue that the billionaire’s continued attempts to back out of the deal citing concerns over bots were “all pretext”.

According to the exchange dated May 8 — several weeks after Musk had agreed to buy the platform for $54.20 a share, and two months into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — the Tesla chief executive wrote: “Let’s slow down just a few days. [Vladimir] Putin’s speech tomorrow is extremely important.”