{"id":16574,"date":"2026-07-14T05:20:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T05:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/16574\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T05:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T05:20:08","slug":"bastille-day-celebrations-unite-europe-in-support-of-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/16574\/","title":{"rendered":"Bastille Day celebrations unite Europe in support of Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

PARIS (AP) \u2014 This year\u2019s Bastille Day<\/a> celebrations aren\u2019t just about France. Troops and warplanes from around Europe are joining Tuesday\u2019s pomp-filled parade through Paris, in what\u2019s meant to be a showcase of support for Ukraine<\/a> and proof of European military strength.<\/p>\n

On President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s last Bastille Day as president, he is hosting around 30 other leaders for an event that appears aimed at showing both Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump that Europe is united and stepping up to defend itself.<\/a><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, raging forest fires<\/a> and a red-alert heat wave<\/a> are shaking up France\u2019s biggest national holiday, forcing the cancellation of traditional fireworks and firefighters\u2019 balls.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what to know about Bastille Day this year.<\/p>\n

It commemorates the start of the French Revolution<\/p>\n

It\u2019s celebrated on July 14 because that\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Today, the day is central to the French calendar. Presidents use it to vaunt France\u2019s accomplishments and national pride, mayors host village festivals and families gather for holiday meals.<\/p>\n

The centerpiece is the Paris parade beneath the Napoleon-era Arc de Triomphe and along the Champs-Elysees avenue, which inspired Trump to stage his own parade<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n

Ukraine is a special guest<\/p>\n

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will join Macron along with some 30 other heads of state or government in the special viewing area for the parade.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian troops will march along the cobblestoned avenue, and Ukrainian co-pilots trained in France will fly two Mirage 2000B fighter jets alongside French air force pilots.<\/p>\n

Macron said Monday night that it\u2019s a \u2033great honor\u2033 to welcome to the parade \u2033all 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.\u2033<\/p>\n

Troops from around Europe are marching<\/p>\n

On the ground, the parade will open with around 500 troops from the \u2033coalition of the willing\u2033 grouping of countries that have pledged to help with Ukraine\u2019s post-war security.<\/p>\n

In the skies, aircraft from Germany, the United Kingdom, Croatia, Poland, Denmark, Greece, Sweden, Norway, Spain and Italy will take part.<\/p>\n

The parade will set a record in terms of number of troops: 6,800 troops will take part in the marching parade this year, compared with 5,810 in 2025.<\/p>\n

The heat is disrupting the holiday<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

As a result, authorities in some regions \u2014 including the French capital \u2014 banned fireworks and firefighters\u2019 balls customarily held around Bastille Day.<\/p>\n

The Eiffel Tower\u2019s drone light show was maintained, however, and held Monday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PARIS (AP) \u2014 This year\u2019s Bastille Day celebrations aren\u2019t just about France. Troops and warplanes from around Europe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6839,6837,43,207,30,166,194,154,160,6838,79,26,164,33,152,81],"class_list":["post-16574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-climate","tag-climate-and-environment","tag-donald-trump","tag-emmanuel-macron","tag-europe","tag-fires","tag-france","tag-general-news","tag-military-and-defense","tag-parties-and-entertaining","tag-politics","tag-ukraine","tag-ukraine-government","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}