Ukraine war live updates: Wife of opposition leader Navalny says his body was abused after death; funeral to be held Friday
This is CNBC's live blog tracking developments on the war in Ukraine. See below for the latest updates.
The funeral of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny will be held on Friday in Moscow, his spokesperson Kira Yarmysh said Wednesday.
"Come early," Yarmysh told her followers on X, formerly Twitter. It's likely that there will be a strong police presence at the funeral given that a large number of Navalny's supporters are likely to attend.
In other news, Russian officials appear to be relishing a gaffe made this week by French President Emmanuel Macron after he suggested that NATO countries had discussed the possibility of Western ground troops being deployed in Ukraine, saying such an eventuality could not be "ruled out."
Macron's suggestion was widely — and very publicly — rejected by NATO member countries yesterday. Russian media has since been dominated by Russian officials savoring the apparent division among NATO members, and Macron's misreading of the alliance's mood music.
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Russia relishes NATO disarray after hasty denials of plan to deploy ground troops to UkraineRussia on Wednesday said it regrets that Sweden is set to join NATO and pledged to take some retaliatory measures to protect itself.
"Russia will take retaliatory measures of a political and military-technical nature in order to stop threats to its national security. Their specific content will depend on the conditions and scale of Sweden's integration into NATO, including the possible deployment of NATO troops, strike systems and weapons on the territory of this country," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a post via Telegram, according to a Google translation.
Russia said that while security matters are a sovereign question for