Ukrainian troops will continue to defend the besieged town of Bakhmut, President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed, stressing that should Russian forces overtake the area, they will have access to seize nearby towns as well.

The two sides have fought for control over Bakhmut for months leading to overwhelming destruction, though Russian forces slowly began having more success over recent weeks. The town does not pose significant strategic value to accomplishing its overall goals in the war, though it would allow Russian forces to move easily toward nearby towns.

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“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 in an interview scheduled to air on Wednesday night. “That’s why our guys are standing there."

Zelensky went on to call this fight "tactical for us" and compared it to Russia's objectives, which he said were that Russia "needs at least some victory — a small victory — even by ruining everything in Bakhmut, just killing every civilian there," noting that "put[ting] their little flag," on Bakhmut would help "mobilize their society in order to create this idea they're such a powerful army."

“I had a meeting with the chief of staff yesterday and the chief military commanders online and offline … and they all talk that we have to stand strong in Bakhmut. Of course, we have to think about the lives of our military. But we have to do whatever we can whilst we’re getting weapons, supplies, and our army is getting ready for the counter-offensive. The military sees for themselves that we have to stay strong there despite the fact that Russia ruined the whole city and everything there,” Zelensky added. “Troops were helping kids, civilians to leave the town — even up to today, people were leaving Bakhmut. We were helping everyone."

Should Russia finally capture Bakhmut, they would have easy access to Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, two nearby industrial urban hubs. Russia has to go through Bakhmut to push deeper into the regions of the Donetsk province they don't control.

Yeygeny Prigozhin, the owner of the Russian paramilitary Wagner Group, claimed on Wednesday that his forces, which have been on the front lines in Bakhmut, have extended their gains in and around the city. He said they have taken control of all districts east of the Bakhmutka River that crosses through the city, though the city center is on the west side of the river, according to the Associated Press.

The Wagner Group's success has come at a significant cost. NATO intelligence estimates that for every Ukrainian soldier killed defending Bakhmut, five Russian soldiers are killed, an unnamed military official within the alliance told CNN earlier this week.

U.S. National Security Council coordinator John Kirby said in December that in Bakhmut, Russia was "literally throwing bodies into the meat grinder."

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said earlier this week that Ukraine retreating from Bakhmut wouldn't constitute "an operational or strategic setback" for the Ukrainian military, according to CNN.

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"I certainly don’t want to discount the tremendous work that the Ukrainian soldiers and leaders have put into defending Bakhmut, but I think it's more of a symbolic value than it is strategic and operational value," Austin said during a visit to Amman, Jordan. "So the fall of Bakhmut won’t necessarily mean that the Russians have changed the tide of this fight. I think it will continue to be contested."

Last month, the secretary noted that one of Russia's biggest strengths is its manpower, saying, "Russia continues to pour large numbers of additional people into the fight ... And those people are ill-trained and ill-equipped, and because of that, we see them incurring a lot of casualties. And we'll probably continue to see that going forward. That's their strength. They have a lot of people."