this is the face of the russian federation. let s get an update now from the war zone from cnn s correspondent is standing by for us. alex, you heard president zelenskyy warn that capturing bakhmut would give russia an open road through eastern ukraine. tell us what the latest is there on the ground. reporter: well, brianna, that echoes what we have been hearing on the ground. when you get close to bakhmut, ukrainian forces say we re defend thing city, we have spent months defend thing city, because if they take it, it could provide a launching off point for russia to push deeper into ukraine. what is interesting is that we have already started hearing ukrainian and some u.s. officials say that if bakhmut were to fall to the russians, it would not be that strategic a victory, that it would be symbolish. but we have president zelenskyy saying this would be a strategic victory for russia were they to take it. some people would push back
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Cnn
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Capturing-bakhmut
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