In his memoirs, Biden compared Putin to a boy and called Zelensky ungrateful enough.
Biden's memoir about his four years as president will be released on November 17. The Wall Street Journal selected highlights from it, including descriptions of Putin and Zelensky. Putin, writes Biden, spoke in a spiritual tone and in meetings "liked to sit idly by, feigning indifference, like a boy." Zelensky's acting background, he said, "turned out to be very good preparation" for the leader of a warring country, but in private conversations he "was moody and stubborn - and not as grateful as I expected." The WSJ does not specify exactly which meetings are discussed in the memoirs. Biden also says that members of Trump's staff asked him to sign a letter before the inauguration that would allow them to negotiate directly with Putin. Biden writes that he refused because he did not want to give them "carte blanche" for what he expected to be "some kind of capitulation at the expense of Ukraine."