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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The Russian defense ministry said two missiles were fired from Ukrainian territory at the IL-76 military transport aircraft. It said 65 Ukrainian POWs were on board, headed for a prisoner swap. -
After a classmate was killed in his hometown of Bakhmut — the longest and bloodiest battle in Russia's war on Ukraine — a rescue worker volunteered to evacuate people from the front lines. -
Zaporizhzhian Cossacks are warriors who have been revered for centuries in Ukraine. A family is maintaining the Cossack traditions by training people with swords, maces and their bare hands. -
Award-winning novelist Victoria Amelina, who retrained as a war crimes researcher to document Russian atrocities and preserve Ukrainian culture, has met a tragic end. -
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. -
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." -
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. -
An apartment building in the Ukrainian city of Uman has been hit after a series of airstrikes across the country on Friday. The attack is the deadliest strike on a Ukrainian apartment since January. -
The Chinese leader's call comes as he has sought to play the role of peacemaker, though chances of a big breakthrough are slim, given how far apart Russia's and Ukraine's positions remain.
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Built largely with Western donations, the spa-like retreat provides soldiers with counseling, aromatherapy and more. But most soldiers are there for no more than a week.
