DONETSK, July 21. /TASS/. The Ukrainian Armed Forces have violated a ceasefire that took effect in Donbass on July 21, attacking the Novaya Tavriya settlement in the south of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), the DPR mission to the Joint Center for Control and Coordination (JCCC) said in a statement on Sunday.

"The Ukrainian military attacked the Novaya Tavriya settlement 12 hours and 53 minutes after an indefinite ceasefire had taken effect. The attack involved small arms," the Donetsk News Agency quoted the statement as saying.

The parties to the conflict tried to make a new ceasefire agreement after Vladimir Zelensky had taken office as Ukraine’s president but failed. Meanwhile, the situation along the line of contact continued to deteriorate, the number of the Ukrainian military’s shelling attacks increased, leading to civilian casualties.

At a Minsk meeting on July 17, members of the Contact Group on resolving the situation in eastern Ukraine managed to reach an agreement and announced that an indefinite ceasefire would take effect in Donbass on July 21. Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Special Representative Martin Sajdik said that the Contact Group has highlighted the need to abandon offensive, reconnaissance and subversive operations, as well as shelling and sniper attacks, the deployment of heavy weapons to settlements and civil infrastructure facilities, including schools, kindergartens, hospitals and public places.