EU considers helping with Mideast energy infrastructure to bypass conflict zones

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — A painful fuel crunch and soaring oil and gas prices triggered by the Iran war have nudged the European Union to look hard into funding alternative energy routes in the Middle East to circumvent hot spots like the Strait of Hormuz.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Friday that the EU is ready to work with Persian Gulf countries for new projects conveying energy to global markets that wouldn’t be held hostage to war or geopolitical strife.

"The events of the past month have taught us a hard lesson,” von der Leyen told a news conference at the end of an informal meeting of EU leaders in the capital of Cyprus. “Our security is not just related, it is intrinsically linked. A threat to a merchant vessel in the Strait of Hormuz is a threat to a factory, for example, in Belgium.”

The EU executive called for ramping up defense ties and promoted the bloc's maritime security mission in the Red Sea as a possible naval security option in the Persian Gulf, but focused her public remarks on European support for repairing and building Middle East energy sites.

“We are also ready to team up with the Gulf countries to diversify export infrastructure away from solely the bottleneck of the Hormuz Strait," she said, also offering to help repair Gulf energy infrastructure damaged in the war.

A fifth of the world's oil and gas normally passes through the Strait of Hormuz, but the war has largely closed the waterway, spiking fuel prices.

Early Friday, Brent crude was up 98 cents at $100.33 a barrel. U.S. benchmark crude picked up 81 cents to $96.66 per barrel.

Von der Leyen repeated that as a result of the oil and gas price hikes, the 27-nation bloc’s energy bill in the last 43 days skyrocketed by 25 billion euros ($29.3 billion.)

Neither she nor European Council President Antonio Costa offered precise details on which projects are being considered or when they’ll move forward. But von der Leyen referred to the India-Middle-East-Europe Economic Corridor between the EU and the world’s largest democracy.

Von der Leyen said a summit between the EU and the Gulf Cooperation Council scheduled for later this year will give both sides the opportunity to explore such projects.

The rotating EU presidency is currently held by Cyprus, an island nation adjacent to Lebanon, Syria, Israel and Turkey. Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides has sought to bring the bloc closer to countries in the Middle East to shore up their economies and bolster their security.

That focus was underscored by his guests at the EU leaders informal summit: Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El Sissi, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Jordan's Crown Prince Hussein and GCC Secretary-General Jasem Mohamed AlBudaiwi.

“We know that Europe needs Syria as much as Syria needs Europe,” Al-Sharaa said, while Aoun called on EU support for rebuilding his war-ravaged country.

Costa praised Aoun for banning the military activities of Hezbollah that he called “an existential threat” to Lebanon, pledging to assist the country in disarming the militant group.

Costa said that “the European Union is not part of the conflict, but we will be part of this solution.”

Human rights groups blasted EU leaders for not increasing pressure on Israel over its military campaigns in the Middle East.

EU leaders including German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said they would not lift sanctions on Iran until a wide array of issues were resolved, including ending its missile program and support for proxies within the region.

“It’s too early to talk about relief of any kind of sanctions,” said Costa.

Cyprus itself came under attack early in the war when a Shahed drone fired from Lebanon on March 2 damaged an aircraft hangar at a British military base on the island’s southern coast. Greece, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands dispatched warships with anti-drone capabilities to defend the island.

That has spurred renewed interest in a clause in the EU's foundational treaties about mutual assistance if a member nation is attacked.

Christodoulides said the EU leaders had agreed to start creating a formal mechanism for such responses because they agreed that “ad hoc arrangements” are unreliable.

——- McNeil reported from Brussels. Associated Press writer Baraa Anwer in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia contributed to this report.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, left, and Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa join a press conference after the EU Summit in Nicosia, Cyprus, Friday, April 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

EU and Middle East leaders pose for a family photo of the EU Summit in Nicosia, Cyprus, Friday, April 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, left, Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides, right, and Croatia's Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic talk during the EU Summit in Nicosia, Cyprus, Friday, April 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

French President Emmanuel Macron, left, talks with the Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa during the EU Summit in Nicosia, Cyprus, Friday, April 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, left, speaks with the Gulf Cooperation Council Secretary General Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi before a family photo of the EU Summit in Nicosia, Cyprus, Friday, April 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian drone and missile strikes on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro killed at least five people and wounded 46, authorities said Saturday.

The bodies of four people were found in the ruins of a house destroyed in overnight attacks, Dnipropetrovsk regional head Oleksandr Hanzha said.

“The Russians have been hitting Dnipro and other cities and communities practically all night,” Hanzha wrote on Telegram of the attacks, which caused fires to break out across Dnipro and partially destroyed several apartment buildings, businesses and a private house.

Another person was killed in a separate Russian attack on Dnipro Saturday afternoon, according to Hanzha, in the same residential area hit by the overnight strikes. He said that 46 people were wounded in total.

To the southwest, two people were wounded in overnight drone attacks on the Odesa region. Residential buildings, port infrastructure and cars were damaged in the south of the region, regional head Oleh Kiper said Saturday.

In Russia, a woman was killed and a man was seriously wounded by a Ukrainian drone strike in the border region of Belgorod, local officials said.

Following the overnight attacks, Romania’s Defense Ministry said Saturday that drone fragments were found in a residential area of the southeastern city of Galati, near the NATO member’s border with Ukraine. No casualties were reported.

Romania has confirmed drone fragments on its territory on multiple occasions.

The overnight attacks followed a prisoner swap Friday, in which Russia and Ukraine exchanged 193 service members.

Periodic prisoner exchanges have been one of the few positive outcomes of otherwise fruitless monthslong U.S.-brokered negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv. The talks have delivered no progress on key issues preventing an end to Russia’s invasion of its neighbor, now in its fifth year.

While meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine is open to continuing peace talks with Russia in Azerbaijan.

“We have already held such talks — in Turkey and with our American partners in Switzerland,” he said. “We are also ready for upcoming negotiations in Azerbaijan, if Russia is ready for diplomacy.”

Morton reported from London. Associated Press writer Stephen McGrath in Leamington Spa, England, contributed to this report.

This story has been corrected to use the Ukrainian transliteration of Hanzha.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Police inspect a body recovered from the rumble of a residential building destroyed by a Russian strike, in Dnipro, Ukraine, Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Mykola Synelnykov)

A man covered in thermal blanket stands in a yard of a residential building damaged by a Russian strike on Dnipro, Ukraine, Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Mykola Synelnykov)

Rescue workers clear the rubble of a residential building destroyed by a Russian strike, in Dnipro, Ukraine, Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Mykola Synelnykov)

Smoke rises after a Russian strike in Dnipro, Ukraine, Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Mykola Synelnykov)

Rescue workers clear the rubble of a residential building destroyed by a Russian strike, in Dnipro, Ukraine, Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Mykola Synelnykov)

Rescue workers clear the rubble of a residential building destroyed by a Russian strike on Dnipro, Ukraine, Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Mykola Synelnykov)

En excavator clears the rubble of a residential building destroyed by a Russian strike on Dnipro, Ukraine, Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Mykola Synelnykov)

A rescue worker clears the rubble after a Russian strike on residential neighbourhood of Dnipro, Ukraine, Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Mykola Synelnykov)