France celebrated its national holiday - Bastille Day - with thousands of French troops marching down the Champs-Elysees avenue alongside allies from Eastern Europe. The traditional parade also featured warplanes, military vehicles and a drone in a performance showing off France’s might and its military efforts to support Ukraine, writes NRP.

The opening of this year’s Bastille Day parade was designed to demonstrate France’s commitment to NATO and to European allies touched most closely by the war in the wake of Russia"s invasion of Ukraine 20 weeks ago.

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.

Higher-than-usual temperatures baking Paris this week didn’t deter crowds from gathering to watch the parade, surrounded by tight security along the Champs-Elysees.