Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has publicly challenged French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen to visit Ukraine and witness the war firsthand, after she said she would travel there “with pleasure” if invited. In an interview published by L’Express, Zelensky said: “Recently, I heard Madame Le Pen say she would be ready to come. So yes, let her come, let her see our population, let her walk around, let her question those she meets, how people live, what they think of Putin. I think she will change her position,” L’Express reported on Oct. 15.
Le Pen, widely seen in polls as the favorite to succeed Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée in the May 2027 election, has promised that if elected she would keep French financial aid to Ukraine for only six months before cutting it off — a position Zelensky’s remarks appear designed to put to the test.
Le Pen says she’ll come — but her party says the campaign won’t allow it
Le Pen, the Rassemblement National (RN) candidate, responded on the CNews channel on Oct. 15: “If Mr. Zelensky wants us to discuss, I will come with pleasure to Ukraine. But what I want to tell him is that we no longer have the financial means to provide aid,” HuffPost France reported. On LCI, RN lawmaker Julien Odoul said the presidential campaign schedule “will not allow her to travel to Ukraine,” while adding that “if [Zelensky] comes to Paris, she will gladly meet him,” L’Express reported.
The contrast was noted by L’Express: a candidate ready to fly to Moscow in March 2017 to meet Vladimir Putin has not set foot in Kyiv since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. No RN official has visited Ukraine, with the single exception of Laurent Jacobelli, who traveled as part of a parliamentary mission on the future of Europe’s land defense industry, L’Express reported.
The six-month promise on aid to Ukraine
The exchange is the latest round in a dispute over French support for Kyiv. On Sept. 3, RN vice president and Perpignan mayor Louis Aliot said that if his party won the 2027 presidential election it would “cut the tap” of aid to Ukraine, arguing the war had “impoverished and weakened Europe.” Le Pen echoed the position on Sept. 16, saying “we can no longer help Ukraine as much” and pledging to halt financial aid six months after taking office at the Élysée, citing the state of France’s public finances, L’Express reported.
French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noël Barrot rejected that argument, telling L’Express: “Attributing our budgetary difficulties to Ukraine is a lie. It is a European loan that supports Ukraine; stopping it would change nothing for the French at the end of the month.” Le Pen has also refused to vote for the €90 billion European loan to Ukraine, L’Express reported.
Zelensky’s counter: aid is an investment, not a cost
In a separate interview with the Financial Times published Oct. 15, Zelensky argued that French aid to Ukraine is not “paying Ukraine” but an investment in Europe’s own security. “Madame Le Pen doesn’t quite master certain details,” he said, adding that France “can only gain” from cooperation with Kyiv, particularly in weapons technology: “We give back in return.” Ukraine, he noted, has become a testing ground for innovations developed over four years of asymmetric combat, including “interceptor drones” whose expertise even the United States has used in its war against Iran.
Sarah Knafo of the Reconquête party said on LCI that “aid to Ukraine represents almost nothing at all among the billions of euros I propose to cut,” and argued France must “respect its commitments and its word” rather than “burden a country at war already abandoned by Donald Trump,” HuffPost France reported. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni — a fellow European nationalist — also contradicted Le Pen, telling the Italian Senate: “Supporting Ukraine is not an alternative to peace. It is what makes peace possible. Because if an aggressor expects his adversary to surrender, why would he negotiate?” Meanwhile, RN lawmaker Sébastien Chenu accused Zelensky of “condescension,” HuffPost France reported.
Divisions inside the RN
On May 10, Pierre-Romain Thionnet, an adviser to RN president Jordan Bardella, attacked the “pro-Russian pacifism” of part of the movement on X. Philippe Olivier, a special adviser to Le Pen and her brother-in-law, shot back: “National interest is war???” — forcing Thionnet to delete the post, L’Express reported. A source close to Le Pen told L’Express he was convinced that “when we say ‘we stop paying for Ukraine,’ 100% of our electorate agrees.”
Macron reaffirms support for Kyiv
French President Emmanuel Macron, who met Zelensky on Oct. 15 and called the meeting “productive,” said in a post on X that “as Russia chooses escalation because it is bogged down on the front, it is capital that we collectively give Ukraine all the means necessary to defend itself and to protect its civilian population and its infrastructure,” France 24 reported.
Questions readers are asking about the Zelensky–Le Pen exchange
Has Marine Le Pen ever visited Ukraine? No. L’Express reports she has not traveled to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, despite visiting Moscow in March 2017 to meet Vladimir Putin.
What exactly has Le Pen promised on aid? She told CNews on Oct. 15 that France “no longer has the financial means” to provide aid, and has said she would maintain financial support for only six months after winning the presidency in May 2027.
Why does Zelensky say the aid matters? In the Financial Times interview, he framed it as an investment in European security, pointing to Ukrainian battlefield innovations such as interceptor drones that allies, including the United States, have used.
Will Le Pen actually travel to Ukraine? Unclear. She said she would come “with pleasure,” but her lieutenant Julien Odoul said on LCI that the campaign calendar makes the trip impossible, offering instead a meeting in Paris if Zelensky visits France.
The dispute between Volodymyr Zelensky and Marine Le Pen plays out in the run-up to France’s May 2027 presidential election, with Zelensky treating Le Pen as a potential future counterpart — and Le Pen’s camp weighing campaign rhetoric against the reality of a country at war.
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