Biden's memoir calls Zelenskyy less grateful than expected and likens Putin to a teenager

Former US president Joe Biden has described his dealings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian leader Vladimir Putin in his memoir Promise Me, America, which is due to be published on 17 November. The details were reported by The Wall Street Journal. They offer a former American leader's view of diplomacy surrounding the war in Ukraine.

Biden writes that Putin had a "petulant tone" and that he "liked to slouch during a meeting, feigning indifference, like a teenager".

Of Zelenskyy, Biden says the Ukrainian president's acting background "turned out to be very good training". At the same time, he writes that Zelenskyy "could be moody and stubborn in our private conversations, and not as grateful as I would have expected".

Request to sign a letter

Biden also reveals that members of current US President Donald Trump's team asked him to sign a letter that would have let them negotiate directly with Putin before Trump returned to office. 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 the cancer is "characterised by a Gleason score of 9", which indicates a high degree of malignancy. Trump responded to the news by wishing Biden a speedy recovery, but later said he was surprised the diagnosis had not been made public earlier.