France Holds Bastille Day Parade with European and Ukrainian Troops

More than 6,500 soldiers and over 300 vehicles marched down the Champs-Élysées in central Paris on July 14, 2026, as part of France's annual Bastille Day parade. The event began at 10 a.m. local time and featured aircraft from 11 European countries along with 500 troops from Coalition of the Willing nations, including Germany, and 25 soldiers from Ukraine.

President Emmanuel Macron presided over the parade, which marked his tenth and final Bastille Day event before the 2027 presidential election. Volodymyr Zelenskyy attended after overnight talks in Paris on Ukraine. Officials said the display was intended to send a strategic signal about Europe's renewed military focus.

The parade included units from multiple European nations. On the same day, Albania, Moldova, Montenegro, and Ukraine each held an accession conference with the European Union in Brussels. EU enlargement commissioner Marta Kos said it was the first time in more than two decades that four accession conferences occurred on one day.

Kos added that Montenegro has closed more than half of the required EU accession clusters while all four countries continue to implement requested reforms. "In the for more than two decades, we have not had four accession conferences in one day, and this will happen today," she said.