The body of a person, who died from the coronavirus disease, lies on a funeral pyre during a mass cremation at a crematorium in New Delhi, India May 1, 2021.
The body of a person, who died from the coronavirus disease, lies on a funeral pyre during a mass cremation at a crematorium in New Delhi, India May 1, 2021. Reuters / ADNAN ABIDI

The Washington Post won the Pulitzer Prize for public service on Monday for its coverage of the siege of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump, while Reuters won in the category of feature photography for its coverage of the coronavirus pandemic in India.

The journalists of Ukraine were also awarded a special citation for coverage of the Russian invasion, Pulitzer Prize Administrator Marjorie Miller announced.

The annual Pulitzers are the most prestigious awards in U.S. journalism, with special attention often paid to the public service award.

This year that award went to the Washington Post for "its "compellingly told and vividly presented account of the assault on Washington on January 6, 2021, providing the public with a thorough and unflinching understanding of one of the nation's darkest days," Miller said.

The events of that day, when Trump supporters disrupted the congressional count of electoral votes that unseated Trump and officially made Joe Biden president, also resulted in a breaking news photography Pulitzer for a team of photographers from Getty Images.

In feature photography, a team of Reuters photographers including the late Danish Siddiqui, who was killed last July while on assignment covering the war in Afghanistan, won the Pulitzer for feature photography for coverage of the coronavirus pandemic's toll in India.

Reuters won "for images of COVID's toll in India that balanced intimacy and devastation," Miller said.

The Miami Herald won for breaking news for its coverage of the collapse of a high-rise condominium building that killed 98 people.

The New York Times won three Pulitzers: one for national reporting for its coverage of fatal traffic stops by police; another for international reporting for its examination of the failures of the U.S. air war in the Middle East; and a third for criticism for Salamishah Tillet, a contributing critic at large, for her writing on race in arts and culture.

In addition, New York Times reporter Andrea Elliott won a Pulitzer Prize in the general nonfiction category for her book "Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival and Hope in an American City," which started with 2013 series published by the newspaper.

The prizes, awarded since 1917, were established in the will of influential newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer, who died in 1911 and left money to help start a journalism school at Columbia University and establish the prizes.

They began with four awards in journalism, four in letters and drama, one for education, and five traveling scholarships. Today they typically honor 15 categories in media reporting, writing and photography plus seven awards in books, drama and music.

A board of mostly senior editors at leading U.S. media and academics presides over the judging process that determines the winners.