STORY: They described how they escaped to safety and struggled to come to terms with the war launched by Russia in February.

Viktoria Kutocha, a teacher who came from the western Ukrainian city of Uzhhorod, on the Slovak border, was in the center with her 7-year old daughter Julia.

Her husband is in the army and she has been able to contact him, but not on a daily basis. It was impossible to understand why Russian say they come to protect people but kill them, she told Biden.

Biden asked Kutocha how she explained the war to children.

"It's very difficult to explain. I only said there is a war and I cannot explain because I do not know myself."

Biden, who teaches English and writing at a community college in Virginia, is on a tour of Romania and Slovakia meeting U.S. servicemen deployed in the countries, and refugees.