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 U.S. has been the strongest supporter of Ukraine in its war with Russia. Yet with a series of blunt comments, President Trump now sounds more aligned with Russia than Ukraine. -
For three years, the U.S. has been Ukraine's leading supporter in its war with Russia. Yet with a series of stunning moves, President Trump is now sounding more aligned with Russia than with Ukraine.
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Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he wants the U.S. to stop using disinformation when talking about Russia's war on Ukraine, after President Trump accused Ukraine of starting the war. -
In the United Arab Emirates on Monday, Zelenskyy said he's in the region for official visits focused on humanitarian and economic issues. He said Ukraine did not know about the Russia-U.S. meeting.
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NPR speaks with Dmytro Kuleba, who spent two and a half years as Ukraine's wartime foreign minister, on Ukraine's prospects for a fair peace agreement on a war started by Russia and how the Trump administration presents both risks and opportunities.
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As the Trump administration publicly hammers out its plans on the Ukraine war, it's also pressing Ukraine for deals in exchange for more aid — including giving the U.S. mining rights for rare earths. -
As President Trump presses Ukraine to quickly end a war started by Russia, the Ukrainian government readies an agreement to sell rare-earth metals to the U.S. in exchange for continued aid.
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President Trump is pressing Ukraine to quickly end a war started by Russia. Ukrainians, meanwhile, are responding with dread as their government scrambles to find leverage.
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President Trump says he will meet President Vladimir Putin in Saudi Arabia, after phone calls with the leaders of Russia and Ukraine to start peace negotiations. -
Reactions to the changes in USAID run the gamut. Some leading voices — like Mexico's president — are in favor. Others fear that lives will be lost as health care programs are cut.
