ELS: MBN360 NEWS
France held its largest ever Bastille Day parade today, showcasing its military power and unity with allies.
With nearly 6,700 troops, 98 aircraft, 31 helicopters and 315 vehicles, a record number of military personnel marched the traditional route between the Arc de Triomphe and the Place de la Concorde.
Ukrainian fighter pilots and troops took pride of place in France’s national Bastille Day celebrations as the massive parade showcased support for Ukraine.
Bastille Day commemorates the start of the French Revolution. It’s celebrated on July 14 because that’s the day Parisians stormed the Bastille fortress and prison in 1789, helping spark the French Revolution that overthrew the monarchy and sent King Louis XVI and his queen Marie-Antoinette to the guillotine.
Bastille Day holiday is central to the French calendar and national identity. Presidents use it to vaunt France’s accomplishments, Mayors across the country host village festivals and families gather for holiday meals.The centerpiece is the Paris parade beneath the Napoleon-era Arc de Triomphe and along the Champs-Elysees avenue.
A huge French tricolor flag hanging below the monumental arch rippled in the wind as a military band on horseback rode down the tree-lined avenue followed by French President Emmanuel Macron standing in an open military vehicle to kick off the parade.
Macron’s last Bastille Day as President, he hosted around 30 other leaders for an event that appeared aimed at showing both Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump that Europe is united and stepping up to defend itself.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attended France’s annual Bastille Day celebrations. He was given an ovation from the assembled European leaders as he arrived and his country’s troops got the biggest cheers of the day from crowds on the tree-lined Champs-Elysees avenue.
Zelenskyy joined Macron along with about 30 other heads of state or government in the special viewing area for the parade. Ukrainian troops marched along the cobblestoned avenue, and Ukrainian co-pilots trained in France were on board two Mirage 2000B fighter jets alongside French air force pilots.
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Other European leaders witnessing the parade included German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and, on one of his last foreign engagements, British Premier Keir Starmer, who has spearheaded with Macron European efforts to support Ukraine but is now stepping down.
On the ground, the parade opened with around 500 troops from the ″coalition of the willing″ grouping of countries that have pledged to help with Ukraine’s postwar security.
The foreign fighters in combat fatigues and dress uniforms marched with their national flags, in a break with tradition — usually only one foreign country is invited to take part in the parade. It was the first time in some 20 years that British troops took part.
Ukrainian forces got the loudest cheers from the crowd. In the skies, aircraft from Germany, the United Kingdom, Croatia, Poland, Denmark, Greece, Sweden, Norway, Spain and Italy were taking part.
The parade set a record in terms of number of troops: The Paris military governor said 7,600 troops were marching this year, compared with 5,810 in 2025. Thousands of soldiers started taking up positions early Tuesday, many taking selfies as helicopters flew overhead.
Bastille Day Coincides With Wildfires And Heatwave
France’s biggest national holiday coincided with raging forest fires and a red-alert heat wave that forced the cancellation of traditional fireworks and firefighters’ balls.
Forest fires are raging in the Fontainebleau forest south of Paris and in areas of southern France, as the country suffers through its third heat wave this year.
As a result, authorities in some regions, including the French capital, banned fireworks and firefighters’ balls customarily held around Bastille Day.
The Eiffel Tower’s fireworks and drone show was maintained, however, and held Monday night, including a drone formation shaped like the Statue of Liberty — a gift from France to the United States that arrived in New York in 1885 to mark the US centennial, the end of the American Civil War, and friendship between the two countries.
