DONETSK, July 1. /TASS/. Over the past 24 hours, the Ukrainian military 36 times violated ceasefire as they opened fire on the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), the republic’s command said on Saturday.

"Over the past 24 hours, the Ukrainian Armed Forces 36 times violated ceasefire," the Donetsk News Agency quoted the command. "They opened fire on 14 settlements, using the artillery, mortars, tanks, IFVs (infantry fighting vehicles), armored vehicles, grenade launchers and small arms."

A gas pipeline was damaged in Donetsk, and a garage burnt down in the city’s Petrov district, the command said.

Since autumn 2014, the Contact Group on the settlement in Donbass has agreed more than ten ceasefires but none lasted for long, with Ukrainian troops repeatedly breaking them down and opening fire at the DPR’s territories from heavy weapons that are to have been withdrawn from the line of engagement in compliance with the Minsk peace agreements on settlement of the situation in Ukraine.

The Package of Measures to fulfil the September 2014 Minsk agreements, known as Minsk-2, that was signed in Minsk on February 12, 2015, envisaged ceasefire between Ukrainian government forces and people’s militias in the self-proclaimed republics in Donbass (DPR and LPR), starting from February 15, 2015, and a subsequent withdrawal of heavy weapons from the line of engagement. The deal also laid out a roadmap for a lasting settlement in Ukraine, including local elections and constitutional reform to give more autonomy to the war-torn eastern regions.