After holding emotional conversations with Ukrainian refugees, including a pair who fled the horrors of the Mariupol siege, President Joe Biden dubbed Russian President Vladimir Putin a “butcher.”

When asked what he thought of Putin after what he had done to the people he was meeting with, Biden replied, ‘He’s a butcher.’

His remark came as Russia bombed Lviv, a western Ukrainian city about 245 miles from Warsaw, where Biden is based. According to CNN, the Russians attacked a fuel depot as Biden prepared to speak about the Ukraine conflict.

Biden spent nearly an hour meeting with a number of refugees during a visit to World Central Kitchen, which has a branch in Warsaw as part of its efforts to feed millions of Ukrainian refugees in Ukraine and in countries that have taken them in.

As he met with those who had fled the fighting and volunteers who were feeding and sheltering the refugees, he offered hugs and words of comfort.

‘To see all those little children wanting nothing more than a hug. They only want to say, ‘Thank you.’ It just makes you feel so damn good. And they’re wonderful, wonderful, wonderful,’ Biden told DailyMail.com when asked how the visit affected him.

‘And you know, the Ukrainians are here, and each of those children said something to the effect of, say a prayer for my father, grandfather, or brother.’ ‘He’s back there fighting,’ said Biden.

‘And I know what it’s like to have someone in a war zone.’ Every morning, you wake up and wonder and pray that you don’t get that phone call. And they’re an amazing group of people,’ he said for the second time during his visit, referring to his late son Beau.

When asked how it would be possible to get aid inside Mariupol, which has been subjected to relentless bombardment, Biden had no answer. Even as it sends more arms to Ukraine’s military and announces an additional $1 billion in humanitarian aid, the administration has said no to U.S. boots on the ground.

‘It’s incredible,’ Biden said.

Biden also reacted to Russia’s claim of a new military posture, which came after a Kremlin defence official announced that the “first stage” of its invasion was over and that it would focus its efforts on the Donbas region.

When asked if he thought the Kremlin’s strategy had changed – a question he avoided earlier in the day when meeting with Polish President Andrzej Duda – Biden replied, ‘I’m not sure they have.’

Biden met with refugees outside a soccer stadium in Warsaw, where a disaster relief NGO had set up a series of stands selling coffee, kielbasas, and even a donut food truck.

While wearing a Beau Biden baseball cap, the president spoke with a number of refugees through a translator.

He picked up a girl in a pink jacket and held her in his arms at one point.

He hugged another young woman and placed his arms around her shoulders, asking his translator, ‘How do you say it in Ukrainian, who do you owe those beautiful eyes to?’ ‘Which came first, your father or your mother? ‘Who had the eyes?’ he inquired of the woman, Victoria.

‘Mother’s eyes,’ she says. ‘You owe Mama a lot,’ he said.

Ana Stryharchuk, a refugee, did not have the opportunity to interact with Biden or obtain the autograph she sought. She was in the back with her mother, trying to catch a glimpse of the president while agents tried to keep photographers at bay and aides tried to keep Polish agents from blocking camera shots.

She claimed she fled Kiev by car two days after the invasion began.

‘It’s really exciting,’ she said of Biden, ‘but I don’t see him at all.’

‘Thank you for all of your assistance from the United States,’ she said.

The brunt of the refugee crisis has fallen on Poland.

Approximately 3.5 million people have fled Ukraine, with nearly 2 million settling in Poland, which shares a nearly 300-mile border with Ukraine.

Humanitarian organisations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and governments from around the world have sent food, money, and medical equipment to assist in what the United Nations calls the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II.

Biden thanked Polish President Andrzej Duda for his country’s response to the humanitarian crisis and pledged financial assistance from the United States.

‘We do acknowledge Poland has taken on a lot with all of the responsibility,’ Biden said ahead of his visit to the refugee centre in a meeting with Duda.

Duda, who appeared with Biden on Friday, described the Ukrainian refugees who have arrived in his country as ‘guests.’

‘We do not want to refer to them as refugees. They are our guests, our brothers, our neighbours from Ukraine, who are currently in a difficult situation,’ he explained.

The United States has been sending money and supplies but will increase its contributions. Biden announced an additional $1 billion in aid and stated that the United States would accept 100,000 more refugees.

Biden assured Duda that the US would do more to assist Ukrainian refugees.

‘We believe that we should also do our part in terms of Ukraine by opening our borders to another 100,000 people,’ he said.

According to the White House, the funds will be used to provide food, shelter, clean water, medical supplies, and other forms of assistance.