Venezuela, Brexit, Syria, Afghanistan, the Mueller investigation, Kashmir, the Uighurs. With everything going on in the world today, the war in Ukraine barely gets the attention it deserves. But five years after Russia’s invasion and annexation of Crimea, the cost to Ukraine, in blood and treasure, has been tragic. The separatist war has cost the lives of at least 13,000 people. Many thousands more have been wounded. In eastern Ukraine, there is now a system of trenches that would not look unfamiliar to soldiers fighting in Europe in the First World War. The Ukrainian economy has been hit hard by the war. The east of the country, where much of the fighting is taking place, was once the industrial heartland of Ukraine’s economy. At the time of the occupation in 2014, Crimea alone accounted for 4 percent of Ukraine’s gross domestic product (GDP). Ukraine’s Ministry of Justice has assessed that the economic damage of Crimea’s annexation to be more than $100 billion. Ukraine’s sea exports are often delayed, if not stopped altogether, by the Russian navy patrolling the waters of the Black Sea. Earlier this month, Russia marked the fifth anniversary of its takeover of Crimea with great fanfare, while many NATO members marked the occasion with perfunctory statements from foreign ministries, but without any genuine emphasis to resolve the crisis in any meaningful way. For most of the world, the war in Ukraine is forgotten. It is unfortunate for the country that many of its allies are now so preoccupied with other matters that a war that has killed 13,000 people and internally displaced 1.5 million hardly pops up on the radar. It is time for the international community to wake up from its Ukraine slumber. Now that 2019 is in full swing, there are four areas over the coming months to keep an eye on when it comes to the situation in Ukraine. The first issue to watch is Sunday’s presidential election, the first in Ukraine since the revolution in 2014. There is a crowded field of candidates — at the peak there were 44, today there are 39. But heading into election day, there are only three main contenders: The incumbent Petro Poroshenko, his political arch-nemesis Yulia Tymoshenko, and comedian-turned-politician Volodymyr Zelensky. There is little doubt that Russia has been doing what it can to undermine the electoral process in Ukraine and meddle in internal events there. Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service warned: “Russia intends to carry out unprecedented cyberattacks on the servers of the Central Election Commission and district election commissions of Ukraine on the day of the presidential election in order to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the process.” If chaos ensues during the election, Russia will likely take advantage of it on the battlefield. The second issue to watch is the “Golan effect” on Crimea. The Trump administration’s recent announcement that it will recognize Israeli sovereignty over Syria’s Golan Heights has already been used by Moscow to justify Russia’s actions regarding Crimea. Others are doing the same. Turkey’s president has used the Golan announcement to justify turning the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul back into a mosque from its current status as a museum. Leaders in Armenia have used the Golan announcement to justify their actions in Azerbaijan’s occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region. In the next few months, Moscow will likely up its diplomatic game when it comes to garnering international recognition of its annexation of Crimea. For a vast majority of countries, Russia’s overtures will fall on deaf ears. Even so, from this point forward, the Kremlin will never miss an opportunity to point out what it sees as a double standard by the US over Russia’s claims to Crimea, thus complicating the matter even more. It is unfortunate for the country that many of its allies are now so preoccupied with other matters that a war that has killed 13,000 people and internally displaced 1.5 million hardly pops up on the radar Luke Coffey The third area to watch is the summer months leading to Ukraine’s parliamentary election, which is expected sometime in the autumn. No doubt Russia will learn from its experience in the presidential election to tweak how it will meddle and cause mischief. The parliamentary election will be a prime target for Moscow since there are more political parties with more diverse views — some even pro-Russia. Moscow will have a better opportunity to influence this election. It is also worth pointing out that in most conflicts, fighting tends to increase during the summer, especially in places such as Ukraine, where the winters can be particularly harsh. So after the presidential election, Russia will do what it can during the summer to apply maximum pressure ahead of the parliamentary election. The final source of tension to watch is the fate of the 24 Ukrainian sailors currently being held by Russia. In November last year, Russian border-patrol boats blocked three Ukrainian navy ships trying to transit through the Kerch Strait, a narrow body of water separating the Azov Sea from the Black Sea. After turning around and entering international waters, Russian forces then opened fire on the ships, boarded and seized them, and captured the 24 sailors. After placing them in a Moscow detention center, Russian authorities said they would detain the sailors for two months, but in January the Lefortovo District Court extended their detention to April 24. As the deadline approaches, expect tensions between Russia and Ukraine to heat up. There seems to be no end in sight to the war in Ukraine. This year will be a challenging one for the country, its allies, and those in the international community who believe in territorial integrity and national sovereignty. Russia will press Ukraine hard on the economic, diplomatic and military fronts. Ukraine’s two elections are fruit ripe for the picking for Russia. Clearly Moscow is ready. Is the international community? Luke Coffey is director of the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy at the Heritage Foundation. Twitter: @LukeDCoffey Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect Arab News" point-of-view