I discount everything Putin says, just like I do every other lying verminous kleptocrat. His rhetoric has nothing at all to do with anything he actually knows or acts on. I think the most important thing about the Ukraine relevant to Putin's prosecution of war there is that Chabad Lubavitch wants Khazaria back, and right now it's full of Ukrainian Christians that Chabad doesn't want there. Same thing with Zelensky, also Chabad, just like Putin. Both of them are also WEF minions, and the WEF wants to decimate the Ukraine for it's own, higher geopolitical purposes, so all these interests dovetail in the destruction of the Ukrainian people.
That's Putin's real twisted vision - whatever his masters' tell him.
Thanks!