  DANSS is a highly segmented 1~m${}^3$ plastic scintillator detector. Its 2500
one meter long scintillator strips have a Gd-loaded reflective cover. The DANSS
detector is placed under an industrial 3.1~$\mathrm{GW_{th}}$ reactor of the
Kalinin Nuclear Power Plant 350~km NW from Moscow. The distance to the core is
varied on-line from 10.7~m to 12.7~m. The reactor building provides about 50~m
water-equivalent shielding against the cosmic background. DANSS detects almost
5000 $\widetilde\nu_e$ per day at the closest position with the cosmic
background less than 3$\%$. The inverse beta decay process is used to detect
$\widetilde\nu_e$. Sterile neutrinos are searched for assuming the $4\nu$ model
(3 active and 1 sterile $\nu$). The exclusion area in the $\Delta
m_{14}^2,\sin^22\theta_{14}$ plane is obtained using a ratio of positron energy
spectra collected at different distances. Therefore results do not depend on
the shape and normalization of the reactor $\widetilde\nu_e$ spectrum, as well
as on the detector efficiency. Results are based on 966 thousand antineutrino
events collected at 3 distances from the reactor core. The excluded area covers
a wide range of the sterile neutrino parameters up to $\sin^22\theta_{14}<0.01$
in the most sensitive region.
