Vitali Deineha

Vitaliy Olegovych Deynega (; also spelled Deyneha; born 25 October 1983) is a Ukrainian volunteer and public activist. He founded the Come Back Alive Foundation in 2014 and served as its director until 2020. From 21 February to 18 September 2023, he held the post of Deputy Minister of Defence of Ukraine responsible for digital transformation.

In 2024, Deynega co-created and produced the sculpture I'm Fine, a 32 m-long by 7 m-high installation assembled from war-damaged street signs, solar panels, satellite dishes, and other artifacts, spelling out the ironic message "I'm Fine" to convey both the destruction of war and the resilience of the Ukrainian people.

In an interview, Deynega recalled that after reading about the escalating violence in eastern Ukraine while chain-smoking in his Kyiv kitchen, he drew inspiration from the collaborative ethos of Burning Man to launch in 2014 the Come Back Alive Foundation, a civilian initiative that has since spent millions of dollars on equipment and training for Ukrainian troops. It has since become one of Ukraine's largest military charities aimed at equipping Ukrainian Armed Forces. Deyngha led Come Back Alive from 2014 to 2020.

Career Between 2016 and 2017, he served as an adviser to Transparency International Ukraine. From 2017 to 2020, he was the host of the television project "Chronicles of the Unannounced War" on 24 Kanal.

On 28 April 2020, together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, he helped raise funds from Ukrainian diplomats to support the military in combating the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2022, Deynega launched the Ukrainian Witness project, dedicated to filming and documenting Russian war crimes during the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Government service On 21 February 2023, Deynega was appointed Deputy Minister of Defence of Ukraine for digital transformation under Minister Oleksii Reznikov. He was dismissed from the position on 18 September 2023 during a Cabinet of Ministers reshuffle.

Awards

Order of Merit, Second Class (23 August 2022).

Order of Merit, Third Class (23 August 2014).

Cross of Ivan Mazepa (5 December 2019).

Medal "For Supporting the Armed Forces of Ukraine" (13 May 2016), presented by Minister of Defence Stepan Poltorak.