The general situation, where CH fails, may be informed by the Keisler-Shelah isomorphism theorem, which asserts that two first-order structures have isomorphic ultrapowers if and only if they have the same first-order theory.
In particular, for any infinite group $G$ at all, of any size, we may take a countable elementary subgroup $H$, meaning in particular that they have the same first-order theory, and so there is a nonprincipal ultrafilter $U$ on an index set $I$ such that the ultrapowers $G^I/U\cong H^I/U$ are isomorphic. Since every first-order structure maps elementarily into its ultrapowers, this means in particular that $G$ maps elementarily (and hence monomorphically) into an ultrapower of $H$, a countable group.
Thus, this fully answers the version of question 2 in which we allow the ultrafilter to live on a bigger index set(but still insist :
Theorem. For every group $G$ there is a countable group $H$ and a free ultrafilter $U$ on each a set, such that $G_i$ being countable).G$ embeds into the ultrapower $H^I/U$.
If you want to insist that the ultrafilter concentrate on index set $\mathbb{N}$, however, then things become more complicated. If the CH holds, then the Keisler-Shelah theorem shows that any two groups of size at most $2^{\aleph_0}$ and with the same theory have isomorphic ultrapowers by an ultrafilter on $\aleph_0$, and so the desired result is attained. In the non-CH case, however, what we seem to get is that for any cardinal $\lambda$, if $\beta$ is smallest such that $\lambda^\beta\gt\lambda$, then any two groups of size $\beta$ with the same theory have isomorphic utrapowers using an ultrafilter on $\lambda$. Thus, they each map into an ultrapower of the other.
The Keisler-Shelah theorem was proved first by Keisler in the case that GCH holds, using saturation ideas as in Simon's answer. The need for the GCH was later removed by Shelah.

