JD Vance’s family member hits out at Vice President over ‘belittling’ President Zelenskyy

US Vice President JD Vance's relative has criticised him over his argument with Volodymyr Zelenskyy during the infamous televised scene at the Oval Office.

The comments come after President Donald Trump halted aid to Ukraine following his fallout with President Zelenskyy last month, where he was joined by JD Vance.

During the talks, Trump and Zelenskyy got into an argument during a heated meeting in the Oval Office as the world leaders were meeting to discuss a potential minerals deal, as well as Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The tension was high (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

During the meeting, Trump told Zelenskyy he's 'gambling with WW3'.

Vance and Zelenskyy became heated in their talks, where Vance described the President as being disrespectful to the US.

"In this entire meeting, have you said thank you?" Vance demanded. "You went to Pennsylvania and campaigned for the opposition in October, offer some words of appreciation for the United States of America and the president who's trying to save your country."

"People are dying … you're running low on soldiers," Trump continued.

In the end, Zelenskyy left The White House early, and cancelled a planned press conference, before he flew to the UK where he had meetings with prime minister Keir Starmer followed by a summit with European leaders.

The argument was televised (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

After much backlash from the media and public following the argument, Vance’s own cousin has criticised him and the President for ‘belittling’ Zelenskyy.

"There's a certain level of decorum that I expect from political leaders, especially in front of cameras," Nate Vance told the BBC.

Nate has spent three years volunteering with the Ukrainian military after Russia invaded and shared that he was ‘not happy’ with the way the White House meeting was handled.

He explained: "I'm kind of attached to the Ukrainian issue but, looking at that, if it were some other completely neutral issue and I saw White House officials and hack journalists that are political belittling a foreign leader, I'd be like 'what the hell is going on?'"

He went on to say that he disagrees with Vance's claims that Zelenskyy was ‘disrespectful’ for ‘litigating’ the dispute in front of the media.

He also doesn’t believe that Zelenskyy has failed to show appreciation for the US’s efforts during the invasion.

Nate said: "Zelensky does a daily or nightly address and thanks everyone who supports Ukraine on a daily basis.”

He lamented that maybe the leader had not shown ‘enough deference to Donald Trump’, but said it would be ‘odd for my cousin and Donald Trump to ask for deference because they've been actively working against his initiatives for the past three years’.

In an interview with Le Figaro, he went on to say that his cousin was a ‘good guy, intelligent’ but that the meeting with Zelenskyy was ‘an ambush of absolute bad faith’.

Last week, Trump said that he was ‘doing very well with Russia’ and that it was ‘more difficult, frankly, to deal with Ukraine’.

While Zelenskyy has publicly thanked the US and Trump since the argument, the moment will go down in history.