US President Biden is huddling with senior Ukrainian officials in Warsaw on the final day of his trip to Europe.
At a hotel in the Polish capital, Biden dropped by a meeting between Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov and their American counterparts, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
During a short photo-op, the group made small talk about the arduous journey the ministers took from Ukraine to Poland, which included a train ride followed by three hours in a car.
“It’s like flying from Kyiv to Washington with a connecting flight in Istanbul,” Kuleba said.
“The good thing is that since the beginning of the war I’ve learned how to sleep under any conditions. So I slept on the train, I slept in the car,” he went on.
Biden latched onto the idea the ministers had traveled by train, and relayed that he, too, had experience of rail travel.
“You’re looking at a fellow who’s traveled over a million, 200,000 miles on a train. Literally,” Biden said.
“So you learned how to sleep,” one of the ministers replied.
“I learned how to sleep,” Biden said. “I even learned how to become friends with a conductor so they kept the people away. You didn’t have to worry about that.”
Reporters were told to leave the room before any questions of substance about the war in Ukraine could be answered.
