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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Dozens have drowned trying to cross the river to EU-member Romania. Border guards are trying to stop them, as the Ukrainian military pushes mass conscription to address troop shortages. -
For the last 10 weeks, a battle has raged for a small northeastern Ukrainian border town just five miles from Russia. After delays, Western military aid helped stall Russia's assault. -
Ukraine's bookstores have expanded despite the war, fueled by interest in works by Ukrainian writers, some who have been killed by Russian forces. But a Russian missile struck a top printing plant. -
A barrage of Russian missiles hit Ukrainian cities Monday, killing at least 36 people and injuring more than 149, and destroying a large children’s hospital in Kyiv, the state emergency service said. -
While some have fled Ukraine's second-largest city, others remain, even performing a classical music festival in defiance of the war. -
Secretary of State Antony Blinken made an unannounced visit to Kyiv and said some new U.S. aid already arrived and more will reach the battlefield in the coming weeks. -
Congress moved a step closer on Saturday toward finalizing long-delayed military assistance for Ukraine. But relief among Ukrainians has been mixed with uneasiness over future U.S. assistance. -
Russian attacks have driven out most of Chasiv Yar's residents. NPR accompanies the mayor on a routine visit to check on those who remain. -
With Russian troops on the offensive, Ukraine's second-largest city is taking the drastic step of moving classrooms for primary and secondary education underground. -
In the 80% of Ukraine that remains in Kyiv's hands, two years of full-scale war with Russia have brought grief, destruction and, despite all, optimism.
