your second amendment freedom."

Read more: Bernie Sanders starts a fight with the NRA, says US should 'follow New Zealand's lead' and ban assault weapons

"I'm officially announcing today that the United States will be revoking the effect of America's signature from this badly misguided treaty."

On Twitter, Trump said that the move would protect "American sovereignty."

—The White House (@WhiteHouse) April 26, 2019

In response, the UN said that the treaty is "a landmark achievement in the efforts to ensure responsibility in international arms transfers," The Associated Press reported.

A spokeswoman said that the treaty "is the only global instrument aimed at improving transparency and accountability in the international arms trade."

Sen. Bob Menendez, the most senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations committee, condemned Trump's move as "yet another myopic decision that jeopardizesa Russian naval base.

Events have moved rapidly, perhaps signalling an effort by Moscow to turn the annexation into a fait accompli before the West can coordinate a response.

In the Ukrainian city of Donetsk, a young man was stabbed to death and more than a dozen people were in hospital after pro-Russian and pro-European demonstrators clashed. The violence was the worst since last month’s overthrow of the Moscow-backed president, Viktor Yanukovich.

But in an apparently conciliatory move, Russia backed deployment of an OSCE monitoring mission in Ukraine, including Crimea, the Swiss chairman of the European rights watchdog said.

The leader of pro-Moscow separatist politicians in Crimea, who took power there after armed men seized the regional parliament on Feb. 27, predicted a strong vote in favor of union with Russia in