Don Cossacks (Russian: Донские казаки) are Cossacks who settled along the middle and lower Don. Historically, they have been located within what was the Don Cossack Host (Russian: Всевеликое Войско Донское, Vsevelikoye Voysko Donskoye), which was either an independent or an autonomous democratic republic in the present day Southern Russia and the Donbas region of Ukraine, from the end of the 16th century until 1918.