Biden calls Zelenskyy ungrateful and describes Putin as "like a teenager" in memoir

Former US president Joe Biden has written about his interactions with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin in his memoir Promise Me, America.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, as reported by European Pravda

Details: In his memoir, due to be published on 17 November, Biden describes Putin's "petulant tone". In particular, the former US president said that the Russian ruler "liked to slouch during a meeting, feigning indifference, like a teenager".

Biden also discussed his experience of interacting with Zelenskyy. In particular, he wrote in his memoir that the Ukrainian president's acting background "turned out to be very good training" for him.

Meanwhile, the former president said that Zelenskyy "could be moody and stubborn in our private conversations, and not as grateful as I would have expected".

Biden also revealed that members of US President Donald Trump's team had asked him to sign a letter that would have allowed them to negotiate directly with Putin before Trump took office again.

However, Biden refused, "unwilling to give them carte blanche for what I expected would be a kind of surrender, at Ukraine's expense".

Background:

• Biden has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer that has spread to his bones. A statement from his office said that the former US president's cancer is "characterised by a Gleason score of 9", indicating a high degree of malignancy.
• Trump reacted to the news of Biden's cancer diagnosis and wished him a speedy recovery, but later expressed surprise that his predecessor's cancer diagnosis had not been made public earlier.

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