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. -
Why suffer bug bites when you can stay inside and READ? NPR staffers suggest a trio of non-fiction: "The Showman," "Invisible Rulers," and "the Threshold of Dissent."
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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. -
As NATO leaders prepare to meet in Washington next week, Ukrainian leaders say they have made huge sacrifices to defend the ideals of the alliance and want a clear path to membership.
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While some have fled Ukraine's second-largest city, others remain, even performing a classical music festival in defiance of the war. -
The White House said it’s fast-tracking the delivery of Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine. That sense of urgency fits the state of the battlefield, as a new Russian advance tests Ukraine.
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As a part of NPR's year-long series on global elections, we look at how U.S. allies and partners view the two presidential candidates ahead of next week's debate.
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Envoys and leaders of more than 90 nations participated, and most signed a statement saying Ukraine’s borders must be respected in any deal to end the war. Russia wasn't invited to the meeting.
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Dozens of leaders, including VP Kamala Harris, attend a Ukraine Peace Summit in Switzerland this weekend. Russia is not invited, but might this meeting still hold promise for the war's end?
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The U.S. and Europe have pledged nearly $2 billion in aid for Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, which has been devastated by Russian strikes. That damage has caused rolling blackouts.
