Gaffe-prone US President Joe Biden recently made another blunder when he confused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with Russian President Putin and referred to him as "Vladimir".
''Vladimir and I … I shouldn't be so familiar,” Mr. Biden said during the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. However, he was quick to realise his mistake and corrected himself in the next sentence.
''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 further said.
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Notably, Mr. Putin and Mr. Zelenskyy each hold a different version of the same name, with "Volodymyr" being the most commonly used version in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, a video of Mr. Biden's speech went viral on social media, with many saying that he needs to take rest now. One user wrote, ''Surely America should protect their President and just admit he needs to retire…it's embarrassing and surely all Americans both Republicans and Democrats would be big enough to accept father time has no political gain.''
Some also defended him saying that it was an easy mistake to make since 'Volodymyr' and 'Vladimir' are variations of the same name, and they sound similar.
A second user commented, ''That's literally his first name. Voldymyr is the Ukrainian way of saying Vladimir which is the Russian.'' A third added, ''Volodymyr and Vladimir aren't that different really tho are they. Obviously it's not ideal but some people mistakenly said osama for Obama too.''
This follows a series of gaffes Mr. Biden has made in the recent past. During his 2022 State of the Union address, he mistakenly referred to "Ukrainians" as "Iranians", while he was speaking about how Russian President Putin had invaded the country.
“Putin may circle [capital city] Kyiv with tanks, but he will never gain the hearts and souls of the Iranian people,” Mr Biden said. He also asked if a lawmaker who had died was present during a White House conference.
Last month, in a similar verbal slip-up, Mr. Biden said that Russian President Vladimir Putin was "losing the war in Iraq" when he meant to say Ukraine.
According to a Reuters report, public opinion polling shows that a majority of Americans have concerns about his age. However, the president's doctor declared him healthy and "fit for duty" in February after a physical examination.
