European troops and warplanes join Bastille Day parade in support of Ukraine

Jets from the acrobatic Patrouille de France fly during the Bastille Day military parade on the Champs-Elysees in Paris on Tuesday (Thomas Padilla/AP)

Ukrainian fighter pilots and troops took pride of place in France’s national Bastille Day celebrations on Tuesday as a massive parade showcased support for Ukraine and symbolically flexed European military muscle.

On President Emmanuel 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.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky 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. Mr Zelensky and Mr Macron shared repeated hugs at the end of the parade.

French soldiers march during the Bastille Day military parade on the Champs-Elysees in Paris on Tuesday (Thomas Padilla/AP)

France’s biggest national holiday coincided with raging forest fires and a red-alert heatwave that forced the cancellation of traditional fireworks and firefighters’ balls.

Bastille Day commemorates the start of the French Revolution. It is celebrated on July 14 because that is 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.

Fireworks and drones illuminate the Eiffel Tower in Paris, during the eve of Bastille Day celebrations (Thomas Padilla/AP)

The centrepiece is the Paris parade beneath the Napoleon-era Arc de Triomphe and along the Champs-Elysees, which inspired Mr Trump to stage his own parade last year.

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 Mr 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.

Emmanuel Macron hugs Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky after the annual Bastille Day military parade on the Place de la Concorde in Paris (Benoit Tessier/Pool photo via AP)

Mr Zelensky joined Mr Macron along with some 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.

On the ground, the parade opened with around 500 troops from the so-called coalition of the willing grouping of countries that have pledged to help with Ukraine’s post-war security.

Emmanuel Macron poses with members of the public in Paris (Benoit Tessier/Pool photo via AP)

Mr Macron said on Monday night that it’s a “great honor” to welcome to the parade “all the partners in the coalition of the willing and our Ukrainian friends who will march with us and illustrate its strategic reawakening and our unity”.

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 for some 20 years that British troops took part. Ukrainian forces got the loudest cheers from the crowd.

Emmanuel Macron and General Chief of Staff of the French armed Forces Fabien Mandon stand in the command car as they review troops during the Bastille Day military parade (Thomas Padilla/AP)

In the skies, aircraft from Germany, the UK, 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.

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 on Monday night, including a drone formation shaped like the Statue of Liberty – a gift from France to the US 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.