Defiant Hope
Courage is contagious. Read the proof in Defiant Hope, a new book from Hope For Ukraine Founder and CEO Yuriy Boyechko, with Halyna Lubinska. After ten years on the ground, these real stories of Ukrainian resilience, service, sacrifice, and survival are coming to readers around the world.
Defiant Hope arrives February 16, 2027.
Published by Berrett-Koehler Publishers and distributed by Penguin Random House, Defiant Hope brings true stories of Ukrainian courage and resilience to a global audience.
Book information
A tribute to courage in the middle of war.
Defiant Hope shares the true stories of ordinary Ukrainians who answered war not with power or position, but with action, courage, and service.
The book follows civilians, volunteers, pastors, aid workers, families, and everyday people whose lives were changed by Russia’s invasion, and whose choices reveal the strength of a nation refusing to be broken.
Written by Yuriy Boyechko with Halyna Lubinska, Defiant Hope grew from Hope For Ukraine’s decade of frontline humanitarian work and three years of documenting the people we serve alongside every day.
Written from the work we live every day.
Defiant Hope is rooted in a decade of service, including the meals delivered, medical aid provided, solar kits distributed, shelters supported, and families reached through Hope For Ukraine’s programs.
Real people
The book centers on ordinary Ukrainians whose courage, choices, and sacrifices reveal the human story behind the headlines.
Frontline service
These stories come from the communities Hope For Ukraine has served and stood beside before and after the full-scale invasion.
Defiant resilience
At its heart, the book is about people who refused to give up on their families, neighbors, country, and future.
Meet the voices behind Defiant Hope.
Featuring a foreword by David Meltzer.
David Meltzer is chairman of the Napoleon Hill Institute and formerly served as CEO of the renowned Leigh Steinberg Sports & Entertainment agency, which was the inspiration for the movie Jerry Maguire.
David is also executive producer of the Apple TV series 2 Minute Drill and Office Hours. His perspective on resilience, leadership, and purpose helps introduce these Ukrainian stories to a wider global audience.
The stories behind Defiant Hope have reached the world.
Before these stories became a book, pieces of them were already being reported by journalists covering Ukraine’s civilians, volunteers, and families living through war.
Coverage of Ukraine’s war, power outages, food needs, and humanitarian response connected to the people featured in this story.
Read article →A powerful report on surviving Russia’s “human safari” in Kherson and the courage of civilians and volunteers.
Read article →Reporting on Ukraine’s volunteers on the front lines after four years of war.
Read article →Reporting on the danger civilians face from hidden mines and Russia’s attacks across Ukraine.
Read article →Coverage of Russian drones hunting civilians in Kherson and the daily danger faced by families and volunteers.
Read article →Yuriy Boyechko speaks about 60,000 civilians still living under drone attacks in Kherson, Ukraine.
Watch interview →Praise for Defiant Hope.
Journalists, authors, and leaders are recognizing Defiant Hope as a powerful account of Ukrainian courage, faith, and resilience.
I’ve ridden with the volunteer chaplains and drivers serving on Ukraine’s front lines. I’ve watched them navigate drone threats, artillery fire, and shattered roads to rescue civilians who had nowhere else to turn. What Yuriy captures in Defiant Hope is something most outsiders never fully see: the quiet courage of ordinary Ukrainians who chose to stay, serve, and sacrifice for others in the middle of unimaginable hardship.
The story of Pavlo Kyliushyk and the others in this book is not theory or political commentary. It is the reality of war lived one dangerous mission at a time. I witnessed firsthand the gratitude of the people they rescued and the relentless determination of the volunteers who kept going back into the fire.
Yuriy Boyechko has spent a decade turning compassion into action. Defiant Hope captures the extraordinary courage of ordinary people who refused to look away and reminds us that the most powerful force in the world is one person deciding to show up for another. This book will move you to tears and to action.
Boyechko and Lubinska have cultivated an illuminating anthology offering a window onto a people thrust into the existential terror and impossible daily choices of war. The stories of these volunteers, and of the countless people they met along the way, lay bare the human cost of Russia’s war and explore the reservoir of resolve that has fueled Ukrainian resistance.
We're used to watching war from a distance, counted in territory, casualties, and outrage. Yuriy Boyechko does something harder. He brings us close enough to see what the people of Ukraine are becoming, not despite what's been done to them, but through what they refuse to let be taken from them. Defiant Hope is about people discovering who they are at a soulful level.