Long romanticised in folklore, Russia’s Cossacks were once semi-autonomous communities living across southern Russia and present-day Ukraine. They served the tsars as elite fighters before being persecuted for backing the imperial order during the 1917 revolution.

At a time when tensions with Europe are rising, Russian leader Vladimir Putin has convened leaders of former Soviet republics under the banner of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and flaunted the unity of the regional bloc.

Follow live updates from NBC News as Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at his annual year-end news conference on Ukraine, peace, war and Trump.

Putin claims no "willingness from Ukraine" to negotiate a peace deal as he touts battlefield gains, and Kyiv claims a brazen strike on a ship far from Russia.

Sen. Lindsey Graham fretted that President Trump’s envoys to negotiate an end to the bloody Ukraine war are “overestimating” Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin’s

After Trump's envoys held three days of talks between Ukrainian and Russian representatives in Miami, alongside French, German and British emissaries, the negotiations once again stalled over territorial issues.

As the war between Russia and Ukraine persists, Russian President Vladimir Putin said his nation's "troops are advancing," The Associated Press reported.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was determined to continue the war in Ukraine until his conditions are met, including Ukrainian territory.

President Vladimir Putin offered no compromise on Friday on his terms for ending the war in Ukraine and accused the European Union of attempting "daylight robbery" of Russian assets.