Ukraine is expected to dominate discussions at the G7 summit.

HIROSHIMA, Japan – President Biden began an abbreviated Asian trip on Thursday in Hiroshima, a city symbolic of the armed conflict, for a summit with allies expected to be dominated by discussions on how to better support Ukraine as it enters a counter-offensive. Russian invaders.

The meeting of the leaders of the Group of 7 countries that began on Friday is a critical moment for President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, his country and the Western democracies now seized with the important mission of carrying out what Mr. Biden called a “strategic defeat.” Russia in Ukraine.”

Mr. Biden has often said that Russia has been defeated. But the fear among the seven great democracies here is that if no counteroffensive proves too successful, Ukraine will descend into a bloody and frozen conflict in which the best is a cease-fire, like the one that led to the war against Korea. Peninsula 70 years ago this summer.

It seemed almost unimaginable in 1997, when President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair invited Russia to become a full member of the group, expanding it – for almost two decades – to the G8. Russia was “suspended” after annexing Crimea in 2014, and withdrew from the group three years later.

Now, with his forces already scrambling to destroy Russian weapons depots before a counter-attack, Mr Zelensky has just completed a series of quick visits to European capitals to drum up support for massive arms and aid dumping. He was expected to speak to the leaders in Hiroshima virtually, but there was a behind-the-scenes conversation about whether to risk taking him to the other side of the world to make his case.

Either way, they will have a large audience. In addition to India, the leaders of Australia, South Korea, Brazil, Indonesia and Vietnam will all be guests. It is part of a broader strategy by Mr. Biden and his allies to attract countries that, to varying degrees, have been fence-sitters in the war, unwilling to punish Russia harshly, enthusiastically imposing sanctions or providing arms to Ukraine.