JAKARTA - President Volodymyr Zelenksy warned Russia would have an open road to seize key cities in eastern Ukraine if it manages to take Bakhmut City, defending his decision to keep Ukrainian troops in the besieged city, in an exclusive interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer from Kyiv.
"This is tactical for us," President Zelensky said, insisting that Kyiv's military top brass unite in extending its defense of the city after weeks of Russian assaults left it on the brink of falling to Moscow forces.
"We understand that after Bakhmut, they can go further. They can go to Kramatorsk, they can go to Sloviansk, it will be an open road for Russia after Bakhmut to other cities in Ukraine, towards Donetsk," President Zelensky explained.
"That's why our people are standing there," President Zelensky explained, adding their motivation for defending the city was very different from Russia's goals.
"We understand what Russia is trying to achieve there. Russia needs at least some victory – a small victory, even by destroying everything in Bakhmut, just killing every civilian there," he said.
He said if the Russians could "put their little flag" over Bakhmut, it would help "mobilize their people to create the idea that they are a very strong army."
Earlier, United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said on Monday the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut was more symbolic than operational strategic, with its fall not meaning that Moscow had regained the initiative in the war.
The battle for Bakhmut has been raging for seven months. A Russian victory in the city, which had a pre-war population of around 70,000 but is now in ruins, would have earned Moscow the first major prize in a costly winter offensive.
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"I think it has more symbolic value than strategic and operational value," Minister Austin told reporters while visiting Jordan.
"The fall of Bakhmut does not mean that Russia has turned the tide of this fight," the Pentagon chief continued, adding that he would not predict whether or when Bakhmut would fall.
Minister Austin said that if Ukrainian forces decided to reposition west of Bakhmut, he would not view it as a strategic setback.
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