{"id":17334,"date":"2025-06-26T21:37:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T21:37:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/17334\/"},"modified":"2025-06-26T21:37:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T21:37:09","slug":"eu-leaders-meet-to-discuss-tougher-russia-sanctions-us-tariffs-and-middle-east-conflicts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/17334\/","title":{"rendered":"EU leaders meet to discuss tougher Russia sanctions, US tariffs and Middle East conflicts"},"content":{"rendered":"

BRUSSELS (AP) \u2014 European Union leaders on Thursday called for even greater efforts to help meet Ukraine\u2019s<\/a> pressing military needs, and expressed support for the country\u2019s quest to join their ranks, but they made little headway with new sanctions<\/a> against Russia.<\/p>\n

At a summit in Brussels, the leaders said it was important to deliver more \u201cair defense and anti-drone systems, and large-calibre ammunition, to help Ukraine, as it exercises its inherent right to self-defence, to protect its citizens and territory against Russia\u2019s intensified daily attacks.\u201d<\/p>\n

They also underlined the need to help support Ukraine\u2019s defense industry<\/a>, which can make weapons and ammunition more quickly and cheaply than its European counterparts. Ukrainian President Vololdymyr Zelenskyy took part in the meeting via videolink.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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

The leaders said the bloc \u201cremains steadfast in its support for Ukraine\u2019s path towards EU membership.\u201d That message comes a day after NATO leaders refrained from putting a reference to Ukraine\u2019s hopes of joining the military organization in their summit statement<\/a>, due in large part to U.S. resistance.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s \u201cshadow fleet\u201d<\/a> of oil tankers and their operators from earning more revenue for Moscow\u2019s war effort.<\/p>\n

The EU has slapped several rounds of sanctions<\/a> on Russia since President Vladimir Putin<\/a> ordered his troops into Ukraine in February 24, 2022. More than 2,400 officials and entities \u2013 usually government agencies, banks and organizations \u2013 have been hit.<\/p>\n

The statement on Ukraine was agreed by 26 of the 27 member countries. Hungary objected, as it has often done<\/a>. At a NATO summit on Wednesday, Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n said that \u201cNATO has no business in Ukraine. Ukraine is not member of NATO, neither Russia. My job is to keep it as it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other developments, the EU leaders deplored \u201cthe dire humanitarian situation in Gaza<\/a>, the unacceptable number of civilian casualties and the levels of starvation.\u201d They called \u201con Israel to fully lift its blockade.\u201d<\/p>\n

They also said that their European Council \u201ctakes note\u201d of a report saying that there are signs that Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza are violating human rights obligations<\/a> in an agreement governing EU-Israel ties. The report was debated by EU foreign ministers<\/a> on Monday, but the bloc is divided over what to do about it.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The head of the main Greens party group in the European Parliament, Bas Eickhout said that \u201cthe EU is losing all credibility in light of the devastating conflicts raging in the Middle East,\u201d and insisted that the Association Agreement must be suspended.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writers Lorne Cook and Sylvie Corbet in Brussels contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BRUSSELS (AP) \u2014 European Union leaders on Thursday called for even greater efforts to help meet Ukraine\u2019s pressing…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17335,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[16817,440,8697,57,50,8961,80,257,3657,16816,273,16815,274,103,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-17334","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-eurocopa-2024","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-european-union","11":"tag-general-news","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-north-atlantic-treaty-organization","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-russia","16":"tag-russia-ukraine-war","17":"tag-sanctions-and-embargoes","18":"tag-ukraine","19":"tag-viktor-orban","20":"tag-vladimir-putin","21":"tag-world","22":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114751828373365462","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}