SIX PEOPLE, INCLUDING a baby girl and her parents, have been killed by Russian shelling in southern Ukraine.

“Russia killed six people in the region of Kherson,” Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said on messaging app Telegram, releasing pictures showing the aftermath of the attack.

One photo showed a column of black smoke rising above a house.

Three adults and a small baby were killed in the village of Shyroka Balka.

“A husband, wife and their 23-day-old daughter were killed by enemy artillery fire,” Klymenko wrote.

“Their 12-year-old son was hospitalised in serious condition. The child’s condition is critical.”

In the village of Stanislav two men were killed, and another person received injuries.

“Terrorists must be stopped. They must be stopped by force,” said Klymenko.

Kherson was one of four regions in Ukraine that Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed to have annexed in September.

Late last year, Russian troops withdrew from the city of Kherson but has continued to target settlements in the region.

Separately, Moscow has said that warning shots were fired from a Russian warship at a cargo vessel heading towards the Ukrainian port of Izmail.

The Russian defence ministry said the Vasily Bykov patrol ship spotted a cargo vessel sailing under the flag of Palau “en route to the Ukrainian port of Izmail.”

“To force the ship to stop, warning shots from automatic small arms were fired from a Russian warship,” the ministry said.