"Open Road For Russians" If Bakhmut Falls: Ukraine President
NDTV
The Russian army has vowed to capture Ukraine's eastern town of Bakhmut, a symbolic prize in months of fierce combat, as a precursor for offensives deeper into Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Russian army would have an "open road" into eastern Ukraine if it captures the besieged city of Bakhmut, US media reported Tuesday.
"We understand that after Bakhmut they could go further. They could go to Kramatorsk, they could go to Sloviansk, it would be open road for the Russians after Bakhmut to other towns in Ukraine, in the Donetsk direction," he told CNN's Wolf Blitzer in an interview due to broadcast in the United States on Wednesday.
The Russian army has vowed to capture Ukraine's eastern town of Bakhmut, a symbolic prize in months of fierce combat, as a precursor for offensives deeper into Ukraine.
The battle for Bakhmut -- a salt-mining town with a pre-war population of 80,000 -- has been the longest and bloodiest in Russia's more than year-long invasion that has devastated swathes of Ukraine and displaced millions.
