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.

Ordinary Russians got the chance to question their leader at his year-end call-in show, with queries focused on an end to the Ukraine war and boosting the economy.

The U.S. findings have been consistent since Putin launched his full-scale invasion in 2022. They largely align with the views of European leaders and spy agencies that he covets all of Ukraine and territories of former Soviet bloc states, including members of the NATO alliance, according to the sources.

The Russian economy has been dealing with growing headwinds this year: unruly inflation, a ballooning budget deficit and shrinking energy revenues. But analysts say the Kremlin could weather the storm for many more years.