The Russophiles in the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party have been calling him an "Atlanticist" – which is not a kind word, in their mouths. With his well-trimmed goatee, dark eyebrows and sergeant's stiffness, Pierre-Romain Thionnet has been the man through whom sincere support for Ukraine has made a place for itself inside the party. Since July 2024, the 30-year-old newly-elected member of the European Parliament and president of the RN's youth movement has been tasked by RN leader Jordan Bardella with reorienting the party's line on the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Indeed, Bardella himself, in his book published in November (Ce que je cherche, "What I'm looking for"), has broken with the pro-Moscow reading of the region's history long been held by Marine Le Pen and her close associates.

Thionnet embodies the younger generation of the identitarian far right, more attracted to the Ukrainian resistance than Putin's imperialism. The Russia-Ukraine conflict has fractured the French far right, which has long advocated a rapprochement with Russia out of anti-Americanism and a fascination for the macho and homophobic power, one they see as a defender of traditional values. As soon as Ukraine was invaded in February 2022, several radical activist groups – to which Thionnet is not affiliated – went over to support the Ukrainian people or fighters, embracing their struggle, while insinuating that Ukraine is the vanguard of European – "white," in other words – civilization, in the face of multi-ethnic, multi-confessional Russia.

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