By JOHN LEICESTER and SAMUEL PETREQUIN, Associated Press

PARIS (AP) — Ukraine’s European allies did not all agree Thursday on the proposed deployment of troops in the country to back up an eventual peace deal and only some want to take part, French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday.

“It is not unanimous,” he said after wrapping up a summit on strengthening Kyiv’s hand and its military as it pushes for a ceasefire with Moscow. “We do not need unanimity to achieve it.”

Macron said France and Britain, which are driving the initiative, would forge ahead with a “reassurance force” with several countries.

The summit hosting the leaders of nearly 30 countries plus NATO and European Union chiefs comes at a crucial juncture in the more than three-year war, with intensifying diplomatic efforts to broker ceasefires, driven by pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to end the fighting.

But the conflict is raging on.

Before the leaders met in the luxury of the French presidential palace, Russian drone attacks overnight wounded more than 20 people and heavy shelling Thursday afternoon killed one person and knocked out electricity in parts of Kherson, Ukrainian officials said.

U.S.-brokered agreements this week to safeguard shipping in the Black Sea and last week to halt long-range strikes on energy infrastructure were greeted as a first step toward peace. But Ukraine and Russia have disagreed over the details and accused each other of deal violations, foreshadowing a long and contentious process ahead.

Europe mulls boots on the ground

France and the United Kingdom are pushing a separate initiative to build a coalition of nations willing in one way or another to support the deployment of a European armed force in Ukraine, with the aim of securing any peace deal by dissuading Russia from attacking the country again.

French President Emmanuel Macron, right, greets Latvia’s Prime Minister Evika Silina during arrivals for a summit on Ukraine at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Thursday, March 27, 2025 . (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Some European countries are more comfortable with a potential deployment than others — not least because a big unknown is whether Trump would allow American forces and intelligence agencies to back up any European contingent with air and logistical support and other assistance.

Building a force big enough to act as a credible deterrent — U.K. officials have talked about possibly 10,000 to 30,000 troops — would also be a considerable effort for nations that shrank their militaries after the Cold War but are now rearming. There would also be questions to resolve about who would command the force and how it might respond to a major violation by Russia of any peace agreement.

The office of U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who’s driving the European initiative together with Macron, said that military planners from Europe and beyond have been drilling down into details of how such a force might be put together, examining “the full range of European military capabilities including aircraft, tanks, troops, intelligence and logistics.”

A litmus test for Europe

In the face of enduring pressure from Trump on European nations to increase military spending and rely less on U.S. forces, dating back to his first presidency, the proposed contingent is also seen as a test of Europe’s ability to defend itself and its interests.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted an image from inside the summit of him and other leaders standing together with the caption: “Europe knows how to defend itself. We must prove it.”

Macron said Wednesday that the proposed European force could deploy to “important towns, strategic bases” in Ukraine and that it could “respond” to a Russian attack if Moscow launched one.

Macron didn’t specify what sort of response he envisaged. But he suggested that a Russian attack might not go unanswered, even though the European troops wouldn’t be deployed to the front lines.

“If there was again a generalized aggression against Ukrainian soil, these armies would, in fact, be under attack and then it’s our usual framework of engagement,” Macron said. “Our soldiers, when they are engaged and deployed, are there to react and respond to the decisions of the commander in chief and, if they are in a conflict situation, to respond to it.

“So we are not on the front lines, we don’t go to fight, but we are there to guarantee a lasting peace. It’s a pacifist approach,” he said. “The only ones who would, at that moment, trigger a conflict, a bellicose situation, would be the Russians if they decided again to launch an aggression.”

How Russian sanctions could affect a ceasefire

The meeting in Paris came as Russia has demanded lifting sanctions to meet its terms for the Black Sea ceasefire.

Sanctions imposed by the U.S. and Europe have punished Russia’s economy and limited its access to global markets.

Zelenskyy accused Moscow of attempting to add conditions to what should be an unconditional agreement.

While the White House said that it would help restore Russia’s access to the world market for fertilizer and farm exports, it didn’t validate Moscow’s conditions. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Russia’s demands would be evaluated and presented to Trump.

There has been a growing chorus of opposition in Europe to lifting the sanctions, which remain their main leverage against Moscow.

António Costa, the president of the European Council representing the EU’s 27 member states, said that sanctions are crucial to support Ukraine and reach a lasting peace.

“This means keeping up the pressure on Russia through sanctions,” Costa said Thursday.

More aid and more attacks

As ceasefire efforts gather steam, Ukraine’s allies in Europe are working to strengthen Kyiv’s hand militarily. Their aim is to enable it to keep fighting until any broad peace takes hold and also to turn the Ukrainian army into the first line of defense against any future Russian aggression.

Macron announced a new package of defense aid for Ukraine that he said was worth 2 billion euros ($2.15 billion) and will include light tanks, air defense and anti-tank missiles and other weaponry and support.

Russian drone attacks overnight wounded at least 18 people in the Kharkiv region and three people in Dnipro, officials said. Shelling in a front-line community in the Zaporizhzhia region knocked out electricity and phone coverage, regional head Ivan Fedorov said on Telegram.

Zelenskyy said that the attacks were further evidence that the U.S. and Europe shouldn’t ease sanctions on Moscow.

“Russia is killing every day and prolonging this war,” Zelenskyy said on social media. “The American proposal for an unconditional ceasefire has been on the table for half a month now.”

Separately, the Ukrainian Army General Staff said that its attack at Engels military airfield in Russia on March 20 had destroyed 96 air-to-air cruise missiles and significant reserves of aviation fuel.

Satellite imagery taken the next day by Maxar Technologies appeared to show damage to ammunition and weapons storage at Engels, the main base for Russia’s nuclear-capable strategic bombers.

Illia Novikov contributed to this report from Kyiv, Ukraine.

By AMANDA SEITZ, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will eliminate 10,000 jobs as part of a major restructuring plan, it announced Thursday.

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Overall, the agency, which is responsible for monitoring infectious diseases, inspecting foods and hospitals and overseeing health insurance programs for nearly half the country, says it will decrease its workforce from 82,000 to 62,000 positions. That includes 10,000 in layoffs as well as another 10,000 workers who are taking early retirements or buyout offers that were given to nearly all federal employees by the Trump administration.

Most of the cuts will come from the public health agencies: The Food and Drug Administration, responsible for setting standards for Americans’ foods and medications, will shed 3,500 workers, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which tracks infectious disease outbreaks, will cut 2,400 positions.

Meanwhile, the National Institutes for Health, the world’s leading public health research agency, will lose 1,200 people. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees health coverage for older and poor Americans, will shed 300 jobs.

By MATT OTT, Associated Press Business Writer

U.S. applications for unemployment benefits held steady last week, a sign that the labor market remains healthy as companies continue to retain their employees.

Jobless claim filings ticked down by 1,000 to 224,000 for the week ending March 22, the Labor Department said Thursday. That’s mostly in line with the 225,000 new applications analysts forecast.

Weekly applications for jobless benefits are considered a proxy for layoffs, and have remained mostly in a range between 200,000 and 250,000 for the past few years.

It remains unclear when job cuts ordered by the Department of Government Efficiency, or “DOGE,” will show up in the weekly layoffs report, though the Labor Department’s February jobs report showed that the federal government shed 10,000 jobs. That’s the most since June of 2022.

Economists don’t expect the federal workforce layoffs to have much of an impact until the March jobs report, which comes out April 4.

Those layoffs are part of the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the size of the federal workforce through DOGE, spearheaded by billionaire Elon Musk.

Senior U.S. officials set the government downsizing in motion late last month via a memo dramatically expanding President Donald Trump’s efforts to scale back the workforce. Thousands of probationary employees have already been fired — though two federal judges last week issued orders requiring the rehiring of thousands of those workers.

Despite showing some signs of weakening during the past year, the labor market remains healthy with plentiful jobs and relatively few layoffs.

The Labor Department reported that U.S. employers added a solid 151,000 jobs in February, and while the unemployment rate ticked up to a 4.1%, it remains a historically healthy figure.

Some high-profile companies have announced job cuts already this year, including Workday, Dow, CNN, Starbucks, Southwest Airlines and Facebook parent company Meta.

The government’s weekly jobless claims report includes a four-week average of applications, meant to even out some of the week-to-week swings. That fell by 4,750 to 224,000.

The total number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits for the week of March 15 declined by 25,000 to 1.86 million.

By DAVID McHUGH and GEIR MOULSON, Associated Press

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — European automakers, already struggling with tepid economic growth at home and rising competition from China, on Thursday decried the U.S. import tax on cars as a heavy burden that will punish consumers and companies alike on both sides of the Atlantic.

The new 25% import tax announced by President Donald Trump on Wednesday “will hurt global automakers and US manufacturing at the same time,” the European Automobile Manufacturers’ association said in a statement.

The head of Germany’s auto industry association, VDA, said the tariffs would weigh on car makers and every company in the deeply interwoven global supply chain “with negative consequences above all for consumers, including in North America.”

“The consequences will cost growth and prosperity on all sides,” Hildegard Müller said in a statement.

The stakes are enormous for BMW, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Stellantis and their vast network of suppliers, as well as the entire European economy.

The U.S. is the biggest export destination for the European auto industry and in 2023, European automakers exported 56 billion euros worth of vehicles and parts to the U.S.. Europe’s auto industry supports 13.8 million jobs, or 6.1% of total EU employment.

Europe’s carmakers already face a shrunken domestic market and new competition from cheaper Chinese electric vehicles. Any trouble in the auto industry would weigh on European economy that did not grow at all in the last quarter of 2024 and just 0.9% for the entire year.

The most exposed are German and Italian carmakers since 24% of German and 30% of Italian non-EU exports go to the U.S.. Germany is home to major automakers such as Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and BMW.

Opel cars are parked on the ground of the Opel car factory in Ruesselsheim near Frankfurt, Germany, Thursday, March 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

“This would deliver a substantial blow to a sector that not only sustains millions of jobs but also contributes to a large proportion of the bloc’s GDP,” wrote analyst Clarissa Hahn at Oxford Economics. She estimated a decline in German exports of 7.1% and a fall of 6.6% for Italian ones.

U.S. carmakers are less exposed to possible retaliation because they export only 2% of their production to the EU. Still, shares of Detroit’s Ford and General Motors tumbled sharply before the opening bell in the U.S. Thursday because the U.S. industry relies heavily on cross-board trade by suppliers.

“The EU and the US must engage in dialogue to find an immediate resolution to avert tariffs and the damaging consequences of a trade war,” the European manufacturers’ association said.

German auto association head Müller called for immediate negotiations between the EU and U.S. on a bilateral agreement that would offer “a forum to discuss the various tariff and non-tariff barriers for automobile products and could lead to a more balanced approach.”

Moulson contributed from Berlin