Russian shelling kills 7, including baby, in Ukraine’s Kherson region

KYIV - Russian forces shelled the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson on Sunday, killing seven civilians, including a baby.

A couple, their 23-day-old baby and another man were killed in the village of Shyroka Balka, said Interior Minister Igor Klymenko.

The couple’s 12-year-old son was critically wounded and died in hospital, he added.

Two people were killed and one wounded in the neighbouring village of Stanislav, which Mr Klymenko said was struck 12 times with artillery.

“The terrorists will never willingly stop killing civilians,” he wrote in a Telegram post along with two photos of damaged houses. “The terrorists must be stopped. With force. They don’t understand anything else.”

Three people were wounded when Russian forces shelled Kherson city in a separate attack on Sunday, said Mr Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential administration.

Ukraine’s military

reclaimed the western part of the Kherson region

from Russian occupation last November but Russian troops have continued shelling the area regularly from across the Dnipro River.

Meanwhile, Russia said its air defences shot down at least four Ukrainian drones over its territories on Sunday.

Three drones were shot down over the Belgorod region and another over the Kursk region, the Defence Ministry said.

There were no casualties or damage caused by the incidents, it added.

Drone air strikes deep inside Russia have increased since a drone was destroyed over the Kremlin in early May.

Civilian areas of Moscow were hit later in May and a business district in the Russian capital was targeted twice in three days earlier in August. REUTERS