Some 500 soldiers from the "Coalition of the Willing" backing Ukraine marched down Paris's Champs-Elysees on Tuesday in the annual Bastille Day parade, in a showcase of support for Kyiv and a symbolic flexing of European military muscle.
Issued on: 14/07/2026 - 13:28
3 min Reading time
A huge French tricolour flag, hanging below the monumental Napoleon-era Arc du Triomphe at the top of the Champs-Elysées, rippled in the wind as a military band on horseback rode down the tree-lined avenue – followed by President Emmanuel Macron standing in an open military vehicle to kick off the parade. Spectators wore hats and brandished small fans to fend off the heat, as a formation of air force planes roared overhead trailing red, white and blue smoke. France marks 14 July as its national holiday in memory of the day Parisians stormed the Bastille prison in 1789, helping spark the French Revolution, which overthrew the monarchy and sent King Louis XVI and his queen Marie-Antoinette to the guillotine. Today's military parade fell one day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky joined around 25 leaders in Paris for a summit of the coalition of Western allies supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia. The allies announced an air-defence coalition, as Ukraine grapples with critical ammunition shortages and intensifying Russian strikes on its capital Kyiv and surrounding regions. Zelensky, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz were among around 30 leaders invited by Emmanuel Macron to watch Tuesday's parade – the French president's last before he leaves office in 2027. It featured around 25 Ukrainian soldiers marching along the capital's most famous avenue.
