Biden slips-up and calls Zelensky ‘Vladimir’ in Nato summit gaffe | News

Joe Biden referred to Volodymyr Zelensky as “Vladimir” on Wednesday (13 July), as the pair spoke at the Nato summit in Vilnius, Lithuania.

“Vladimir and I… I shouldn’t be so familiar,” Mr Biden said, referring to the Ukrainian president by his first name, before catching himself.

“Mr Zelensky and I talked about the kind of guarantees we could make in the meantime when I was in Ukraine and when we met in other places,” he continued.

“Volodymyr” and “Vladimir” are different variants of the same name, but “Volodymyr” is more widely used in Ukraine.