On 5 September 2026, Le HuffPost ran a headline on a ‘friction’ at the RN over Ukraine, now involving Éric Ciotti. The claim rests on recent public statements, cross-checked by several media outlets. Here is the examination of the facts, the context and the limits. Why the subject is circulating now The exchanges fall within the pre-campaign for the 2027 presidential election. Marine Le Pen and Édouard Philippe feature among the polling favorites. A statement by an RN official served as the trigger for a media and political clash, later broadened to the Ciotti ally. Verifiable origin of the buzz On Thursday 3 September 2026 (or the day before according to some accounts), Louis Aliot, RN vice-president and mayor of Perpignan, was a guest on BFMTV. Asked about continuing aid to Ukraine in the event of coming to power, he used the expression ‘we cut off the tap’. He justified it by saying the health system, education and the French economy are ‘on their last legs’, and that one must know how to ‘stop a war’. He recalled that the RN condemns the Russian aggression while stressing the cost for France and Europe.[[1]](https://www.huffingtonpost.fr/politique/article/eric-ciotti-ne-veut-pas-couper-le-robinet-a-l-ukraine-comme-le-rn-et-veut-des-moyens-pour-kiev318815.html) These remarks were immediately seized on by opponents. Édouard Philippe wrote on X that ‘cutting off the tap to Ukraine is serving Russia’, accusing the RN of having changed on almost everything except its ‘support for Putin’s regime’. Gabriel Attal spoke of a ‘party of the foreigner’ and of submission. Raphaël Glucksmann referred to ‘tinpot patriots’ and the risk of the conflict spreading. Marine Tondelier called Marine Le Pen a ‘Trojan horse’.[[2]](https://www.franceinfo.fr/elections/presidentielle/parti-de-la-soumission-a-la-russie-patriotes-de-pacotille-les-candidats-a-la-presidentielle-fustigent-la-position-du-rn-sur-l-aide-a-l-ukraine8178707.html) Marine Le Pen reacted by calling ‘urgently for a major peace conference’ to reach a diplomatic settlement, recalling the human toll (a figure of 2 million victims advanced by her). She attacked Édouard Philippe’s ‘pitiful international record’, recalling the reception of Vladimir Putin at Versailles and Brégançon in 2017 and that of Dmitry Medvedev in Le Havre in 2019, when Philippe was prime minister. She neither repeated nor explicitly denied Aliot’s ‘cut off the tap’ formula. Jordan Bardella affirmed historic support for Ukraine and fidelity to international commitments, while opposing certain loans (such as the €90 billion one in the European Parliament) and refusing to rule out future adjustments. Laurent Jacobelli, on franceinfo on 5 September, nuanced the position: the RN supports Ukraine so that it regains independence, freedom and borders, but ‘not at the cost of France’s financial life’.[[3]](https://www.huffingtonpost.fr/politique/article/le-rn-veut-couper-le-robinet-a-l-ukraine-mais-marine-le-pen-n-aime-pas-qu-edouard-philippe-le-rappelle318123.html) Established facts concerning Éric Ciotti On 5 September 2026, at the political restart of the Union des droites pour la République (UDR) in Levens (Alpes-Maritimes), before several thousand people (claimed figures of around 5,000 to 6,000), Éric Ciotti, mayor of Nice and president of the UDR, marked a difference. Asked about the subject at the moment Aliot was proposing to cut aid, he declared: ‘It is a people that has been attacked; I want the Russian invasion to be fought and Ukraine to recover its sovereignty and its freedom.’ He added that ‘the means are needed for Ukraine to be free and independent’.[[1]](https://www.huffingtonpost.fr/politique/article/eric-ciotti-ne-veut-pas-couper-le-robinet-a-l-ukraine-comme-le-rn-et-veut-des-moyens-pour-kiev318815.html) Ciotti also proposed to Marine Le Pen an ‘alliance pact’ for the 2027 presidential election, after discussing it with her, and reaffirmed his loyal support for her candidacy. The UDR, born of the 2024 agreement between Ciotti (then contested president of LR) and the RN, has a distinct parliamentary group and positions itself as an ally, with acknowledged divergences especially on economic issues (a more liberal UDR line on taxation, inheritance, etc.).[[4]](https://www.20minutes.fr/politique/4242974-20260905-presidentielle-2027-eric-ciotti-propose-pacte-alliance-marine-pen) Ciotti has a record of displayed support for Ukraine: inaugurations of consular representations in Nice, statements of solidarity, opposition to sending ground troops and to rapid NATO/EU accession while calling for the aggression to be fought. Earlier posts and interventions confirm this line of support for Ukrainian sovereignty. What is false, exaggerated, incomplete or uncertain There is at this stage no official break in the RN-UDR alliance nor any frontal public disavowal of Ciotti by the RN leadership. The ‘friction’ is real over the degree of aid and the rhetoric (‘cut off the tap’ vs ‘provide the means’), but fits into already observed divergences (budget, economy). The RN does not have a single, fixed monolithic position: Aliot was direct; other officials nuance by speaking of support conditioned on French capacities and a priority for diplomacy/peace. Accusations of ‘submission to Russia’ or of a ‘pro-Putin’ party are opponents’ opinions and political attacks; they draw on the record (Le Pen’s trip to Moscow in 2017, votes against certain aid packages, past links) but the RN has officially condemned the invasion since 2022 and says it supports Ukraine. The absence of a clear denial of Aliot by Le Pen is a fact, not proof of total identity of views. The figure of ‘two million victims’ advanced by Le Pen is not a consensual estimate from official tallies (deaths, wounded, displaced vary by source); it must be taken as a statement. Contradictions and blind spots The RN often votes against new aid envelopes while saying it is in solidarity. Ciotti, more Atlanticist/traditional Gaullist on some points, insists on the means while remaining sovereignist (against ground troops, etc.). The 2024 alliance has already shown gaps on the economy. Blind spots: the precise detail of what a possible RN government would actually do (maintain humanitarian aid? reduced military aid? conditioned?) is not set out in a detailed public programme at the time of the statements. Ciotti’s exact role in a possible Le Pen team remains unclear, even if he positions himself as a useful supporting force to broaden the right-wing electorate. Primary sources are Aliot’s BFMTV interviews, the X posts of Philippe, Le Pen and others, and reports of the UDR restart (HuffPost, 20 Minutes, Ouest-France, Le Monde, franceinfo, BFMTV). There is no joint official RN-UDR statement clarifying a single line on aid at the time of the facts. Provisional conclusion Available evidence confirms a difference of wording and emphasis between Aliot’s outburst (and the RN leadership’s lack of clear contradiction) and Ciotti’s more affirmative position in favour of means for Ukrainian sovereignty. This constitutes real friction within the allied RN-UDR political space, exploited by opponents in the presidential context. It is not, for now, accompanied by an open crisis or a disavowal. The RN line remains marked by a stated priority for French budgetary interests and the search for a diplomatic outcome, while Ciotti places greater emphasis on fighting the aggression. The verdict on the lasting depth of this divergence remains open: it will depend on forthcoming programmatic clarifications and management of the alliance through to 2027. The information is dated early September 2026 and may evolve.