On the day after the referendum, the People's Soviet of the Donetsk People's Republic proclaimed Donetsk to be a sovereign state with an indefinite border and "asked Russia to consider the issue of our republic's accession into the Russian Federation". It also announced that it would not participate in the presidential election which took place on 25 May. In response, "the Kremlin called for dialogue between the government in Kyiv and the south-east regions of the country, suggesting that a Crimea-style annexation of the region for Moscow is not on the cards."