Joe Biden has said that Vladimir Putin is "clearly losing the war in Iraq" in another bizarre gaffe from the 80-year-old US President.
Mr Biden was asked by reporters outside the White House about the Wagner revolt that shook the Kremlin, and to what extent it has hurt Putin.
But Mr Biden didn't correct himself after replying: "It’s hard to tell, but he’s clearly losing the war in Iraq..." and instead carried on: "He's losing the war at home, and he has become a bit of a pariah around the world."
The Wagner Group mounted a short-lived armed rebellion against the Russian government before its founder, Yevgeny Progozhin, agreed to flee to neighbouring Belarus, which has supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Russian authorities then said they have closed a criminal investigation into the uprising and are not pressing an armed rebellion charge against Prigozhin.
Mr Biden reportedly made a similar gaffe at a fundraiser on Tuesday, when he referred to the war in "Iraq" and not Ukraine, and also did not correct himself.
Russia’s main domestic security agency, the FSB, said it had dropped the criminal investigation with no charges against Prigozhin or any of the other participants, even though about a dozen Russian troops were killed in clashes.
The Kremlin had promised not to prosecute Prigozhin after reaching an agreement with him that he would halt the uprising and retreat to neighbouring Belarus.
That came even though President Vladimir Putin vowed to punish those behind the rebellion.
Joe Biden said that the unrest had weakened Putin, though he added that it’s “hard to tell” to what extent.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that the biggest impediment now to negotiating peace is “Putin’s conviction that he can outlast Ukraine and he can outlast all of us.”
“The more we are able to disabuse him of that notion, the more likely it is that at some point he’ll come to the table,” Blinken said at the Council on Foreign Relations.
He added that the NATO summit in Lithuania in two weeks will offer “a very robust package for Ukraine, political and practical.”
