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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A Ukrainian soldier and his wife describe how the large-scale Russian invasion has changed their lives and their country. -
The U.S. is allowing Ukraine to use the powerful long-range weapons to strike in and around Kursk — the same region where some 10,000 North Korean troops were recently deployed. -
In a cookbook forged during the war with Russia, a Ukrainian celebrity chef uses cuisine to "continue the story of Ukraine." -
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy congratulated Trump and praised his "peace through strength" approach, but concerns in Ukraine loom over Washington's continued commitment to Kyiv. -
In Ukraine's industrial east, near the front line in the almost 3-year-old war with Russia, Ukrainians are bracing for a U.S. election they fear will have major repercussions for their country. -
Ukraine says North Korean military engineers have been sent to Russia to check how well missiles are launching. -
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the country can now make 4 million drones annually. The government, military, private companies and regular citizens are all involved. -
Blinken and British Foreign Secretary David Lammy met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who wants the White House to lift restrictions on long-range missiles, and announced more aid. -
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.
