For months, Western allies have shipped billions of dollars worth of weapons systems and ammunition to Ukraine with an urgency to get the supplies to Kyiv in time for an anticipated spring counteroffensive.

Now summer is just weeks away. While Russia and Ukraine are focused on an intense battle for Bakhmut, the Ukrainian spring offensive has yet to begin.

Leaders of seven of the world's most powerful democracies will gather this weekend for the Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima, the location of the world's first atomic attack at the end of World War II.

From the emergence of crucial developing countries to security worries, including growing aggression from China, North Korea and Russia, here's a look at the G-7, who will attend and some of the key issues:

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is expected to end his 12-year exile from the Arab League this week at a summit in Saudi Arabia, which championed his return over the objections of other regional leaders.

Assad's invitation to Friday's summit in Jeddah signals his return to the fold after more than a decade of isolation since his government's brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 2011 triggered a war that has killed more than 500,000 people.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine 15 months ago, the West has delivered ever more powerful weapons to Kyiv to help it defend its territory and recapture lost ground.

AFP looks at how the type of weaponry supplied evolved over the course of the war.

Close, but not close enough. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan received the most votes in a weekend presidential election but could not claim victory because he failed to get the majority support required for an outright win.

Preliminary results showed the longtime leader had 49.5% of the vote. His main challenger, opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, garnered 45%, according to Turkish election authorities. A third candidate, nationalist politician Sinan Ogan, received 5.2%.

The cycle has become grimly familiar.

Over three days, Israeli airstrikes on Gaza have killed at least 28 people, including senior Palestinian militants, as well as children as young as 4 years old. Palestinian militants in Gaza have fired over 600 rockets toward Israel, killing one person, setting off warning sirens as far north as the coastal city of Tel Aviv and sending tens of thousands of Israelis into bomb shelters.

Over recent years, Sudan's military and a separate armed force accumulated power, each suspicious of the other, even as they worked together against the country's pro-democracy movement. Officers inside both forces say it was a long-building recipe for disaster.

Their tenuous alliance ended in mid-April, when they turned their guns on each other, sparking a conflict that threatens to engulf African's third largest country.

In the year in which the Turkish republic marks its centenary, the country is being closely watched to see if a united opposition can succeed in unseating an increasingly authoritarian leader in the NATO-member country.

Turkey's presidential and parliamentary elections, taking place on Sunday, could stretch President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's rule into a third decade — or they could set the country on a new course.

The Arab League's decision to re-admit Syria after shunning it for 12 years was a significant symbolic victory for Damascus, part of a larger regional realignment and an indication of the United States' waning role, analysts say.

But it may not immediately bring the reconstruction dollars that Syrian President Bashar Assad is hoping for. Nor is it likely to bring the changes Syria's neighbors want, such as an agreement on refugee returns and moves to reduce drug trafficking.

A truce announced Wednesday by Gaza militants followed a deadly exchange of cross-border fire, sparked by the death in Israel of a Palestinian hunger striker.

AFP looks back at worsening violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since last year: