EU leaders seek a big boost in Ukraine military support but make little progress on Russia sanctions

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders on Thursday called for even greater efforts to help meet Ukraine's pressing military needs, and expressed support for the country's quest to join their ranks, but they made little headway with new sanctions against Russia.

At a summit in Brussels, the leaders said it was important to deliver more “air defense and anti-drone systems, and large-caliber ammunition, to help Ukraine, as it exercises its inherent right to self-defense, to protect its citizens and territory against Russia’s intensified daily attacks.”

They also underlined the need to help support Ukraine's defense industry, which can make weapons and ammunition more quickly and cheaply than its European counterparts. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took part in the meeting via videolink.

Russian forces have made slow gains at some points on the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, but it has been costly in terms of troop casualties and damaged equipment. The outnumbered Ukrainian army has relied heavily on drones to keep the Russians back.

Months of U.S.-led international efforts to stop the more than three years of war have failed. As hostilities have ground on, the two sides have continued to swap prisoners of war.

The leaders said the bloc “remains steadfast in its support for Ukraine’s path towards EU membership.” That message comes a day after NATO leaders refrained from putting a reference to Ukraine's hopes of joining the military organization in their summit statement, due in large part to U.S. resistance.

The EU is working on yet another raft of sanctions against Russia, but the leaders made little headway. A key aim is to make further progress in blocking Russia's “shadow fleet” of oil tankers and their operators from earning more revenue for Moscow's war effort.

The EU has slapped several rounds of sanctions on Russia since President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. More than 2,400 officials and entities – usually government agencies, banks and organizations – have been hit.

The statement on Ukraine was agreed by 26 of the 27 member countries. Hungary objected, as it has often done. At a NATO summit on Wednesday, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that “NATO has no business in Ukraine. Ukraine is not a member of NATO, neither Russia. My job is to keep it as it is.”

The leaders also heard from Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on ongoing trade talks with the U.S. aimed at warding off President Donald Trump’s threat of new tariffs, or import taxes, on European goods coming into the US.

Von der Leyen said at a post-summit news conference that she and Trump had agreed at the Group of Seven summit “to speed up the work” ahead of a July 9 deadline. Trump at first laid out a 20% tariff and then threatened to raise that to 50% after expressing dissatisfaction with the pace of talks. Those would come in addition to a 25% tariff on cars from all countries and 50% on steel from all countries, measures that would hit the EU’s auto industry.

Von der Leyen said that Europe had received the latest proposal from the U.S. and was analyzing it. She said the commission, which handles trade for the 27 EU member states, preferred a deal but was also preparing a list of U.S. goods that could be hit with “rebalancing” tariffs.

“We are ready for a deal,” she said. "At the same time, we are preparing for the possibility that no satisfactory agreement is reached, this is why we consulted on a rebalancing list and we will defend the European interest as needed, in short, all options remain on the table.”

Trump has rejected an EU offer of zero tariffs on both industrial goods and cars, while the EU has rejected changes in the regulation of digital companies and in its national value-added taxes, which economists say are trade neutral because they are levied on imports and domestic goods alike.

French President Emmanuel Macron said he told Trump in a phone call during the EU summit that the Europeans were “willing to find an agreement.”

“But we don’t want to reach a deal at all costs,” Macron warned. U.S. tariffs would “inevitably” lead to retaliatory measures on U.S. goods on the European market, he said.

The trade issue is crucial for the EU’s trade dependent economy; the commission’s forecast for modest growth of 0.9% in GDP this year was based on an assumption the EU could negotiate its tariff down to Trump’s 10% baseline minimum for almost all trade partners.

In other developments, the EU leaders deplored “the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, the unacceptable number of civilian casualties and the levels of starvation.” They called “on Israel to fully lift its blockade.”

They also said that their European Council “takes note” of a report saying that there are signs that Israel’s actions in Gaza are violating human rights obligations in an agreement governing EU-Israel ties. The report was debated by EU foreign ministers on Monday, but the bloc is divided over what to do about it.

The ministers will discuss the issue again at their next meeting on July 15. Suspending ties, including on trade, would require a unanimous decision, which is likely impossible to obtain from staunch backers of Israel like Austria, Germany and Hungary.

The head of the main Greens party group in the European Parliament, Bas Eickhout said that “the EU is losing all credibility in light of the devastating conflicts raging in the Middle East,” and insisted that the Association Agreement must be suspended.

Associated Press writers Lorne Cook and Sylvie Corbet in Brussels and David McHugh in Frankfurt contributed to this report.

French President Emmanuel Macron addresses a media conference at an EU summit in Brussels, Friday, June 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen addresses a media conference at an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, June 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)

Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz, right, speaks with Portugal's Prime Minister Luis Montenegro during a round table meeting at an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, June 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, left, speaks with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides during a round table meeting at an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, June 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

From left, Belgium's Prime Minister Bart De Wever, Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico attend a round table meeting at an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, June 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, right, speaks with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, center, during a round table meeting at an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, June 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

Participants pose for a family photo at the 2025 NATO summit in The Hague, on Tuesday, June 24, 2025. (Haiyun Jiang/Pool Photo via AP)

President Donald Trump speaks during a media conference at the end of the NATO summit as Foreign Secretary Marco Rubio, right, and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth listen, in The Hague, Netherlands, Wednesday, June 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

FILE - The European Union flag stands inside the atrium at the European Council building in Brussels, June 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Havana, file)

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. flu infections showed signs of a slight decline last week, but health officials say it is not clear that this severe flu season has peaked.

New government data posted Friday — for flu activity through last week — showed declines in medical office visits due to flu-like illness and in the number of states reporting high flu activity.

However, some measures show this season is already surpassing the flu epidemic of last winter, one of the harshest in recent history. And experts believe there is more suffering ahead.

“This is going to be a long, hard flu season,” New York State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said, in a statement Friday.

One type of flu virus, called A H3N2, historically has caused the most hospitalizations and deaths in older people. So far this season, that is the type most frequently reported. Even more concerning, more than 91% of the H3N2 infections analyzed were a new version — known as the subclade K variant — that differs from the strain in this year’s flu shots.

The last flu season saw the highest overall flu hospitalization rate since the H1N1 flu pandemic 15 years ago. And child flu deaths reached 289, the worst recorded for any U.S. flu season this century — including that H1N1 “swine flu” pandemic of 2009-2010.

So far this season, there have been at least 15 million flu illnesses and 180,000 hospitalizations, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates. It also estimates there have been 7,400 deaths, including the deaths of at least 17 children.

Last week, 44 states reported high flu activity, down slightly from the week before. However, flu deaths and hospitalizations rose.

Determining exactly how flu season is going can be particularly tricky around the holidays. Schools are closed, and many people are traveling. Some people may be less likely to see a doctor, deciding to just suffer at home. Others may be more likely to go.

Also, some seasons see a surge in cases, then a decline, and then a second surge.

For years, federal health officials joined doctors' groups in recommending that everyone 6 months and older get an annual influenza vaccine. The shots may not prevent all symptoms but can prevent many infections from becoming severe, experts say.

But federal health officials on Monday announced they will no longer recommend flu vaccinations for U.S. children, saying it is a decision parents and patients should make in consultation with their doctors.

“I can’t begin to express how concerned we are about the future health of the children in this country, who already have been unnecessarily dying from the flu — a vaccine preventable disease,” said Michele Slafkosky, executive director of an advocacy organization called Families Fighting Flu.

“Now, with added confusion for parents and health care providers about childhood vaccines, I fear that flu seasons to come could be even more deadly for our youngest and most vulnerable," she said in a statement.

Flu is just one of a group of viruses that tend to strike more often in the winter. Hospitalizations from COVID-19 and RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, also have been rising in recent weeks — though were not diagnosed nearly as often as flu infections, according to other federal data.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

FILE - Pharmacy manager Aylen Amestoy administers a patient with a seasonal flu vaccine at a CVS Pharmacy in Miami, Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)