Joanna Kakissis
Joanna Kakissis is a foreign correspondent based in Kyiv, Ukraine, where she reports poignant stories of a conflict that has upended millions of lives, affected global energy and food supplies and pitted NATO against Russia.
Kakissis began reporting in Ukraine shortly before Russia invaded in February. She covered the exodus of refugees to Poland and has returned to Ukraine several times to chronicle the war. She has focused on the human costs, profiling the displaced, the families of prisoners of war and a ninety-year-old "mermaid" who swims in a mine-filled sea. Kakissis highlighted the tragedy for both sides with a story about the body of a Russian soldier abandoned in a hamlet he helped destroy, and she shed light on the potential for nuclear disaster with a report on the shelling of Nikopol by Russians occupying a nearby power plant.
Kakissis began reporting regularly for NPR from her base in Athens, Greece, in 2011. Her work has largely focused on the forces straining European unity — migration, nationalism and the rise of illiberalism in Hungary. She led coverage of the eurozone debt crisis and the mass migration of Syrian refugees to Europe. She's reported extensively in central and eastern Europe and has also filled in at NPR bureaus in Berlin, Istanbul, Jerusalem, London and Paris. She's a contributor to This American Life and has written for The New York Times, TIME, The New Yorker online and The Financial Times Magazine, among others. In 2021, she taught a journalism seminar as a visiting professor at Princeton University.
Kakissis was born in Greece, grew up in North and South Dakota and spent her early years in journalism at The News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina.
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Four soldiers in Ukraine's south have spent months making clandestine trips across the river dividing Ukrainian and Russian forces, preparing for a counteroffensive to reclaim occupied land.
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Russia launched its biggest drone strike since the war began. Ukrainian officials say it mostly targeting the capital Kyiv. Ukraine's top commander hints a long-awaited counteroffensive is imminent.
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Pentagon officials met today with other nations supporting the war, and Kyiv says it's steadfast in pushing Russia out of the country altogether.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a rare and brief trip to Hiroshima, Japan this weekend to re-energize support for the war from key Western allies. -
A look at Ukrainian President Zelenskyy's diplomatic push and what it might mean for the the next phase of the war in Ukraine.
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On his arrival, Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram: "Japan. G7. Important meetings with partners and friends of Ukraine. Security and increased cooperation for our victory. Today, peace will be closer." -
Ukraine's top judge has been arrested after allegedly receiving nearly $3 million in bribes for favorable rulings, the latest crackdown on endemic graft as Ukraine seeks to join the European Union.
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An agreement allowing Ukrainian grain to ship through the Black Sea has been extended for two months just a day before its expiration — overcoming Russia's threats to pull out of the deal. -
Ukrainian forces claim they've made advances in the battle for Bakhmut — a city in the east that Russia has been trying to capture for more than 10 months.
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As Ukraine co-hosts the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool, it's showcasing a song inspired by a famous last stand. It will be performed by a duo intended to promote an inclusive Ukrainian identity.
