Poland held its biggest military parade on record in Warsaw on 15 August, with some 2,000 soldiers and 300 combat vehicles marching along the Vistula river accompanied by flyovers of F-16 and F-35 jets. The event, held under the banner "Poland SAFE," was used by Prime Minister Donald Tusk to showcase the country's defence buildup: Poland is the single largest beneficiary of the EU's SAFE (Security Action for Europe) rearmament programme, receiving €44 billion of the €150 billion earmarked to strengthen European armed forces. The parade comes as Poland — which shares a 535-kilometre border with Ukraine — faces a tangible Russian threat, though the spectacle was overshadowed by recent questions about military readiness after sirens failed to sound in parts of the country when a Russian missile crashed in an eastern field in late July 2026.