President Joe Biden on Wednesday set off for Italy, where he will spend Thursday and Friday huddling with the leaders of some of the world’s most influential democracies at the Group of Seven’s annual summit. 

With a wave of uncertainty from recent and upcoming European elections looming, the more than two-year-old war in Ukraine is expected to be top of mind as Biden and his counterparts in the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Canada, Germany and Japan descend on the Puglia region for the multi-day meeting. 

Biden’s first day in Italy will include a sit-down and a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is joining this year’s summit. In a move White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said would send Russia a “signal of our resolve,” Biden and Zelenskyy are set to sign a bilateral security pact, pledging to continue to make sure Ukraine can defend itself and deter future aggression while stopping short of committing any U.S. troops to the fight. 

“Our goal here is straightforward, we want to demonstrate that the U.S. supports the people of Ukraine, that we stand with them and that we’ll continue to help address their security needs, not just tomorrow but out into the future,” Sullivan told reporters on Air Force One enroute to Italy. 

Coinciding with the summit, National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby told reporters on Tuesday that the U.S. will also announce an “impactful” set of new sanctions and export control actions going after entities and networks helping Russia get what it needs to carry on the war. 

“They will make it harder for financial facilitators, for instance, to support Russia's defense industrial base and they will further restrict Russia's future revenues in key sectors,” Kirby said. 

The U.S. will also announce “new steps to unlock the value of the immobilized Russian sovereign assets to benefit Ukraine,” Kirby said. The leaders are considering whether to use funds from Russian assets frozen after its 2022 invasion to help finance Ukraine. 

Kirby would not go into detail about what such an announcement would look like but emphasized it will be a topic of discussion. 

“The President will continue to reiterate our desire to move in lockstep with our allies and partners on using those frozen assets appropriately to help with reconstruction in Ukraine, and as I said in my opening statement, there'll be some of the announcements on that,” he said. 

“Yes and yes,” Biden replied while on a trip to France to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day and meet with French President Emmanuel Macron when asked if the two spoke about a plan for profits of frozen Russian assets and whether they reached an agreement. 

The new commitments follow Biden’s sit down with Zelenskyy while on that trip to France last week in which the U.S. president apologized for the delay in Congress approving additional funds for the country, a situation the administration says allowed Russia to make inroads on the battlefield. Biden’s request for billions of additional dollars to aid Ukraine was stalled in Congress for months as some lawmakers, particularly in the House GOP, pushed back on the U.S. continuing to financially support the country in its fight against Russia. 

The new commitments to Ukraine all come in the face of fresh uncertainty in Europe and the U.S. Over the weekend, far-right parties in Europe Union elections had strong showings, leading Macron to announce a snap election in France in the coming weeks. The United Kingdom will also hold an election on July 4.

“We have every confidence that regardless of who feels what seats in the EU parliament, we're going to continue to work closely with President von der Leyen and our EU partners on all the issues relative to our shared interest across the European continent and that includes supporting Ukraine,” Kirby said when asked about the election over the weekend on Tuesday. 

But the administration and the G7 also faces uncertainty with the United States’ own upcoming election in November, when Biden and former President Donald Trump look likely to face off in a rematch and polls show the rivals neck-and-neck. On his trip to France last week, Biden put the implicit contrast between his and Trump’s diverging views of America’s place on the world stage front and center. 

Also potentially hanging over the trip for Biden is his son’s conviction on federal gun charges on Tuesday. The president left for Italy less than 24 hours after Hunter was found guilty and made an unscheduled stop in his home state of Delaware Tuesday night where he embraced his son on the tarmac upon arrival. 

Meanwhile, the U.S. president is also set to meet with Pope Francis during the summit this week. Biden, the Pontiff and other leaders will hold a session on artificial intelligence.