Yeah it's really not on brand with their usual message about how gay men are going to cause the fall of western civilization by being all feminine and weak something something cultural marxism...

I think the toxic masculinity has started feeding on itself like a snake eating it's own tail.

Other posters have already mentioned it, but the idea of using homosexuality as means to produce super-soldiers is tried-and-true, and goes way, way back:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_Band_of_Thebes

So, even taking Putin's ridiculous claim at face value, it still just boils down to Russia's soldiers being inadequate compared to Ukraine's.

Now I'm motivated to work out...