While the Kremlin was busy pushing the narrative early on in the war that Moscow had no choice but to attack Ukraine because superhuman Nazis had taken over in Kyiv, President Vladimir Putin reportedly told a gas exec that the real goal behind the war was a “state secret.” That’s according to Matthias Warnig, the managing director of Nord Stream AG, who revealed his conversation with the Russian leader to Zeit Online. Warnig said he sat down with Putin a few months after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.“What are your goals?” he recalled asking Putin. “You’re talking about Donetsk and Luhansk, but at the same time your troops want to take Kyiv. Do you need Odessa, or Kharkiv, or all of Ukraine, or even more?” According to him, Putin’s response was brief and cryptic: “It’s a state secret.”