On the subject of listening to Putin, there is a rule in war: Anything the enemy says is disinformation. You do not believe, nor not believe it , you simply ignore it completely insofar as that is humanly possible. Your decisions are based on facts, actions and your own intelligence.
This applies to anything they say, including "we want a diplomatic solution", "we are here to free you", etc... The enemy is not your friend and is not going to give you anything that can help your efforts.
On how Putin´s Russia is behaving, yes, I find quite a few similarities with the Nazis in WWII - the right to impose their views by force, despising minorities, blaming the foreign for your own weaknesses...
On top of that, their so-called diplomatic solution involves meeting all of Russia's demands, (which simply means surrendering their territories and becoming a Russian outpost, like Belarus). The war continues with an irreducible pace, I never expected such an outcome.