Will Trump now finally concede Ukraine's Crimea to Putin?

Hardly has the dust settled on the defeat of Trump and the Republicans to retain control of the US House of Congress when Trump, in his infinite 'wisdom' (sic), decided to get rid of his attorney general, who had disqualified himself from overseeing the Mueller investigation into how Putin helped Trump gain the keys of the White House, and summarily replaced his sacked attorney general with an ardent Trump supporter.

And as Trump was sacking Jeff Sessions, his attorney general who disqualified himself from overseeing the Mueller investigation, UNIAN reports that,

"The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine has spotted the amassing of heavy weapons at five training areas in occupied Donbas." (UNIAN : 08 November, 2018) (my emphasis)

UNIAN also reports that at a press conference after the Republicans lost the House of Congress, Donald Trump,

"... blamed the “regime” of former President Barack Obama for Ukraine’s loss of its Crimean Peninsula, which was seized and annexed by Russia in 2014." (UNIAN : 8 November, 2018) (my emphasis) (Full Trump Press Conference after mid-term results)

And whilst Trump was Blaming President Obama for Putin seizing and annexing Ukraine's Crimea,

"Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and German Chancellor Angela Merkel (right) condemned Russia for what they called the illegal annexation of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula." (Radio Poland : 03:11:2018) (my emphasis)

Also during this press conference of Merkel and Morawiecki , Merkel lamented the, "lack of success of implementing the Minsk2 Agreement ". (YouTube)

Now recall that this meeting between Merkel and the Polish Prime Minister follows closely on the heels of Merkel meeting with Ukraine's President Poroshenko.

As I wrote in my last blog entry (1/11/2018),

"Fast forward to November 1, 2018 and we have Angela Merkel visiting Ukraine for the first time since 2014.
...
That the primary focus of this meeting will revolve around bilateral economic relations between Germany and Ukraine, with Putin's war with Ukraine, and his illegal occupation of Ukraine's Crimea, relegated to "other important topics to be discussed", signifies that 'Putinversteher' Merkel is now trying to compensate Poroshenko for the economic losses that Ukraine will suffer when Nord Stream2 turns Germany into the gas hub for the EU." (Blog : 1/11/2018)

Since Merkel's political position and stature is fast waning in BOTH Germany and the EU, to the obvious delight of President Macron of France who hankers to replace her as the leading politician of the EU, whatever political pronouncements Merkel may make about the war between Ukraine and Putin's Russia will now begin to fall on deaf ears.

 More disturbingly, however, those EU states which have always clamored for the removal of the EU sanctions against Putin, sanctions that were put in place because of Putin's illegal annexation of Ukraine's Crimea, and his ongoing war with Ukraine in the Donbas, now find themselves in a stronger position to remove those EU sanctions. 

So when Merkel laments the, "lack of success of implementing the Minsk2 Agreement", in essence she is finally admitting that Minsk2 is, in reality, a 'dead horse'!

This admission of Merkel has implications for the scheduled meeting between Trump and Putin at the upcoming G20 summit to be held in Buenos Aires on the 30th of this month.

Will Trump now finally concede Ukraine's Crimea to Putin? 

Trump has already stated that,

"... he can override a directive from congress preventing him from recognizing Russian sovereignty over Crimea." (Tom Embury-Dennis : The Independent : 15 August, 2018) (my emphasis)

Notwithstanding,

"The [US] Treasury Department announcing sanctions against two individuals and one entity for "serious human rights abuses" and sanctions on another eight entities and one individual responsible for advancing Russian interests in Crimea." (Nicole Gaouette and Donna Borak (right): CNN : November 8, 2018) (my emphasis),

the fact that Trump has summarily replaced his sacked attorney general with an ardent Trump supporter, without following the correct procedure, tells us that his belief that he can simply override the US Congress if he so wishes will determine whether he concedes Ukraine's Crimea to Putin.

However, unlike their meeting in Helsinki, where secrecy prevailed about what was discussed between Putin and Trump, the upcoming meeting between Trump and Putin at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires on the 30th of this month can now be scrutinized by a Congress controlled by the Democratic Party.

Trump is now staring into the abyss of impeachment. And he knows it!

(to be continued)