Washington DC - Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently got into a heated exchange when he was asked about President Donald Trump's apparent affinity for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

On Sunday, Rubio sat down for an interview with ABC News.

In it, he praised the president and Vice President JD Vance for their contentious meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week – and slammed Zelensky for trying to "'Ukraine-splain on every issue."

As anchor George Stephanopoulos pressed him on the Trump administration's recent moves that appear "to placate Putin," Rubio grew tense, repeatedly arguing that the US president is only seeking to broker a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine.

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He insisted that Trump is "the only person on earth who has any chance whatsoever" of bringing Putin to the negotiation table.

But he went on to admit that Putin's demands might end up being "unreasonable," and it is well-known he "is not going to be an easy negotiator."

Rubio then took a shot at Trump's predecessor, former President Joe Biden, arguing that "the Biden administration berated Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israelis, put all kinds of conditions and pressure on them to try to get a ceasefire. In this particular case, we've been nice by comparison.

"I really am puzzled why anyone thinks that trying to be a peacemaker is a bad thing," Rubio said. "It's only a bad thing when it's Donald Trump trying to do it... It's absurd to me."

Rubio's remarks come after Trump and Vance held a meeting with Zelensky in the Oval Office on Friday, during which the two presidents grew combative towards each other, resulting in Zelensky leaving the White House without the anticipated signing of a preliminary pact on sharing Ukrainian mineral rights.

The unprecedented public spat has been panned by world leaders and US politicians on both sides of the aisle, but Trump's inner circle has continued to defend him.

During his interview, Rubio went so far as to argue that "if this was a Democrat that was doing this, everyone would be saying, well, he’s on his way to the Nobel Peace Prize. This is absurd."