Ukraine plays symbolic role in France's Bastille Day parade
The war in Ukraine featured prominently in Bastille Day celebrations in France on Thursday, with thousands of French troops marching down the Champs-Elysees avenue alongside allies from Eastern Europe.
The traditional parade, a powerful political, historical and symbolic annual event in France, also featured warplanes, military vehicles and a drone in a performance showing off France's might and its military efforts to support Ukraine.
The opening of this year's Bastille Day parade was designed to demonstrate France’s commitment to NATO and also to its European allies touched most closely by the war in Ukraine.
Troops from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Hungary were assigned the front position, bearing their national flags. Multinational troops deployed in Romania after the invasion marched after them.
The higher-than-usual temperatures in Paris this week didn't deter crowds from gathering to watch the parade, surrounded by tight security along the Champs-Elysees.
On the eve of Bastille Day, French President Emmanuel Macron hailed Ukraine’s unexpected ability to stand up to Russia's aggression.
He also called for a review of France’s military organisation to make it more nimble in the face of changing threats, as well as for a “rethink” of France's military presence in Africa.
“Each and every one of us was struck by the Ukrainian nation’s moral strength that allowed it to hold on despite an initially unfavourable balance of power," Macron told French military brass Wednesday night.
“I’ve asked the minister, the joint chief of staff and the general delegate for armaments to review the pertinence of our organisations, our structures and even the way we look at things ... to
Read more on euronews.com
