France’s July 14 Bastille Day parade in Paris will feature aircraft from 11 European countries and around 500 troops from the Coalition of the Willing to showcase support for Ukraine, organisers said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will join President Emmanuel Macron and about 30 other heads of state in a special viewing area, and Ukrainian soldiers will march along the Champs-Élysées. Two Ukrainian co-pilots trained in France will fly French Mirage 2000B fighter jets alongside French pilots. The parade will include aircraft from Germany, the United Kingdom, Croatia, Poland, Denmark, Greece, Sweden, Norway, Spain and Italy among others. Organisers say the event is meant to send a strategic signal of European unity and a renewed military focus, aimed at demonstrating resolve to Russia and showing Europe is stepping up its defence. The ceremony will be Macron’s last Bastille Day as president and will set a new record with 6,800 troops taking part in the marching parade, compared with 5,810 in 2025. High temperatures and forest fires forced cancellations of traditional fireworks and firefighters’ balls in some regions, altering parts of the national holiday.
