Hiroshima –

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit Hiroshima to join the Group of Seven leaders summit in the atomic-bombed city, multiple reports said Friday, on a trip that would be rich in symbolism amid Russian nuclear saber-rattling in the bloody war against its neighbor.

The Ukrainian leader was expected to arrive in Japan on Saturday — his first visit to Asia since Russia invaded his country in February last year — and attend the G7 summit the following day. It is understood that Zelenskyy will hold bilateral talks with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who in March became the final G7 leader to visit Kyiv for a meeting with the wartime president.

A senior Ukrainian government official appeared to confirm the visit to Hiroshima.

"There will be very important matters decided there, so physical presence is a crucial thing to defend our interests," Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, told Ukrainian state television.

Asked by reporters on Friday evening about Zelenskyy's possible trip, Kishida refused to confirm reports, in an apparent attempt to maintain the focus on the summit’s agenda, pointing to a post to a Ukrainian defense website statement that maintained Zelenskyy would be joining G7 leaders in an online format.

The Ukrainian leader arrived in Saudi Arabia on Friday for an Arab League summit ahead of the Japan visit, he tweeted.

Zelenskyy may also tour the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum during his trip. G7 leaders on Friday visited the site and spoke with a survivor of the 1945 atomic bombing and were guided by Kishida through vivid exhibits displaying the horrors of nuclear weapons.

Touring the museum in the atomic-bombed city would be a highly symbolic move following numerous fiery threats by top Russian officials to use nuclear weapons in the Ukraine conflict, including one in March by former Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who said that Western arms shipments to Kyiv were bringing “nuclear apocalypse” closer.

The Ukrainian president had originally been scheduled to participate in an online session on Sunday, the closing day of the summit.

He was expected to fly on a U.S. military plane to Hiroshima after a stop in Saudi Arabia to attend the Arab League summit, Bloomberg News reported, quoting unidentified sources.

G7 leaders on Friday agreed on a fresh set of measures to rein in Moscow’s “war machine” and “increase the costs to Russia and those who are supporting its war effort.”

Zelenskyy recently wrapped up a tour of the European G7 members, confirming their support ahead of a highly anticipated counteroffensive. The Ukrainian leader is widely believed to be looking to solidify territorial gains in order to use that as leverage in any eventual peace talks with the Russian side.

In his quick visit to Kyiv in March, Kishida invited the Ukrainian leader to participate virtually in the G7 summit.

Zelenskyy’s visit to Hiroshima — the home of Kishida's district — is widely regarded as a notable win for Tokyo’s diplomatic corps, as it would mark only the second trip outside of Europe by the Ukrainian leader after his visit to Washington last December.

An in-person meeting with G7 leaders, as well as representatives from other countries and international organizations invited to the summit, could add weight to discussions on the war and further cement the united front against Russia.

As countries in the unofficial "Global South" grouping of developing nations — including some of those invited to the summit, notably Brazil and India — have shown reluctance in condemning the war, Zelenskyy’s physical presence at the summit would convey a strong message of solidarity that exceeds the G7 framework.

The visit would also mark the latest in a spate of foreign policy achievements for Kishida, whose approval ratings have seen an uptick in recent months due mainly to efforts to repair ties with neighboring South Korea.

Amid growing rumors of a snap election soon after the Hiroshima summit, Kishida’s ability to score further points during the expected Zelenskyy meeting could have a significant impact on the domestic front as well.