Pulitzer Prizes honor coverage of Russia's war in Ukraine

The Associated Press and the New York Times were both awarded for their coverage of the war in Ukraine. The awards are the US' most prestigious journalism prizes.

Columbia University announced on Monday its Pulitzer Prizes, recognizing the best of journalism and the arts in 2023.

The Associated Press (AP) news agency won two Pulitzer Prizes, in public service and breaking news photography, for coverage of Moscow's war in Ukraine. The agency's startling images of Russia's siege of Mariupol, in eastern Ukraine, were honored.

The prize for international reporting went to the New York Times, for its coverage of Russian killings in the Ukrainian town of Bucha.

"AP journalists have done courageous and important work in Ukraine throughout the war, shining a spotlight in particular on the human toll of the conflict," AP Senior Vice President and Executive Editor Julie Pace said.

"From dispelling Russian misinformation to contributing to the creation of a humanitarian corridor, their work has been an incredible public service and we're so pleased that it has been honored by the Pulitzer board," she added.

An array of winners

Caroline Kitchener of The Washington Post was awarded the national reporting Pulitzer for her work on the fallout of the overturning of Roe v. Wade last year by the Supreme Court which has led to numerous abortion bans across the US.

The prize for commentary was given to Kyle Whitmire of AL.com from Birmingham, Alabama.

Whitmire won the award "For measured and persuasive columns that document how Alabama's Confederate heritage still colors the present with racism and exclusion, told through tours of its first capital, its mansions and monuments–and through the history that has been omitted," according to the Pulitzer website.

Among the non-journalism prizes, the books "Demon Copperhead" by Barbara Kingsolver and "Trust" by Hernan Diaz won the awards for fiction writing.

All winners are given $15,000 (€13,600) apart from the winner of the public service prize, who receives a gold medal.

The annual Pulitzers are considered the most prestigious honors in US journalism. The prizes were first presented in 1917.