Two women killed in Russian missile strike in Mykolaiv
Russians killed two women with a missile strike on a private facility in the city of Mykolaiv on the evening of January 28, 2025, according to Vitalii Kim, head of the Mykolaiv Oblast Military Administration, Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych and Ukraine’s State Emergency Service (SES).
Sienkevych had reported that the Russians targeted a business facility in Mykolaiv.
At 23:30, the SES reported that the missile strike had hit the premises of a food industry company.
“Two workers aged 54 and 56 were killed. Emergency workers retrieved the bodies from under the rubble. A workshop building was partially destroyed and the administrative building of the facility was damaged,” SES reported.
Previously, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha in an interview for the European Pravda news outlet assured that Kyiv’s position regarding the aspiration to join NATO is firm. He reminded the audience that the course towards NATO membership has long been enshrined in the Constitution, and a convincing majority of Ukrainian society supports Ukraine’s membership in the Alliance.

According to the results of a sociological survey published by the New Europe Center and conducted by the Info Sapiens agency, 31.3% of Ukrainians consider the development of nuclear weapons to be the best guarantee of the country’s security, , while 29.3% of respondents support joining NATO.
Also, according to the survey, Ukrainians consider the following to be the best security guarantees:
- Ukraine developing nuclear weapons – 31.3% of respondents;
- Joining NATO (without control over part of the territories) – 29.3%;
- A defense alliance with the United States, including the possibility of deploying US troops in Ukraine – 11.2%;
- UN peacekeepers – 8.9%;
- Deployment of European troops in Ukraine – 6.4%;
- Difficult to say – 12.9%.
Meanwhile, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte warned the European Parliament committee on January 13 that the current 2% defense spending target falls short of ensuring allies’ safety in the coming four to five years.
Rutte stressed that allies must urgently invest more in defence and defence production, improve process efficiency and strengthen the resilience of their societies and critical infrastructure in order to protect their people and way of life.
“To stay safe in the years to come, allies will need to spend considerably more than 2% […] Spending more on defence means spending less on other priorities. But it can make a big difference for our future,” he said.
In the meantime, a BSW party leader Sahra Wagenknecht spread pro-Russian narratives at her party’s “pre-election” congress in Bonn on January 12, calling for an end to arms supplies to Ukraine, lifting of sanctions, and increased cooperation with Russia.
Wagenknecht presented her “Our country deserves more” election programme, a 39-page document promoting social promises and economic recovery through cheap Russian gas. She falsely claimed that sanctions against Russia “have nothing to do with the war and have zero effect” and “have nothing to do with morality.”
The party demands:
- Stopping German arms supplies to Ukraine
- Negotiations over Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories
- Organizing referendums in occupied areas
- Ukraine’s readiness for compromises
Alternative für Deutschland party leader Alice Weidel pledged to restore nuclear power plants and resume Nord Stream pipeline operations if she gains power, according to NTV.
Former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, in an interview for the Civil Network OPORA, stated that Western countries lack the political will to confront Russia and are doing so with Ukrainian hands. Moreover, they do not even believe that Russia will attack them in the future. He emphasized that for EU countries, security is not a value but rather a comfort of life and the Zeitenwende has not shifted the mentality of German society. Klimkin is convinced that [Russian ruler Vladimir] “Putin and his entourage sense this weakness at an instinctual level”.