The President, the First Lady, and the foreign guests laid flowers at the Wall of Remembrance and observed a moment of silence to honor the fallen warriors.

July 15. Ukraine marks Ukrainian Statehood Day. We are proud to be the heirs of Kyivan Rus and the Cossack state, and to have a thousand years of experience in building our state. A thousand years of courage, of the desire to live in freedom, to live as a sovereign and independent nation, to follow only our own path, and to be who we are – to be Ukraine, to be Ukrainians. We are proud of what everyone has witnessed throughout the full-scale war – Ukraine’s thousand-year-old character.

In Paris, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and First Lady Olena Zelenska attended France’s military parade marking Bastille Day. This year's parade was themed around Russia's aggression against Ukraine under the title "Europe's Strategic Awakening."

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy took part in a meeting of the Coalition of the Willing held in Paris. The meeting brought together representatives of 40 countries, with Moldova and North Macedonia joining the Coalition. This was the 15th meeting of the Coalition of the Willing since its first gathering in February 2025, which was also held in the French capital.

Today, we held a very important and productive meeting of the Coalition of the Willing. We are not merely maintaining this format. Within the Coalition, we are moving toward the point when we will be able to say that peace is drawing closer.