As part of World Freedom Day, Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat created a map within CS: GO to report on the war in Ukraine directly to anyone playing the game in Russia. The intention was to distribute “independent journalism” on the war bypassing the rules that limits traditional media in Russia.
Helsingin Sanomat Editor-In-Chief Antero Mukka tells GamesRadar+ “Russians have very little chance to receive independent information about Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. However, the gaming world and gamers themselves are still left unchecked. That’s why we decided to hide a newspaper inside the world’s most popular war game. We built a map of a Slavic city devastated by a war, inside the game, with a secret room that offers Russian gamers an uncensored access to the horrors of the war in Ukraine in their native language.”
The map called “de_vonya, ” with the latter half translating to ‘war’ – a word Russian authorities outlawed in connection to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. The secret room can be found when spectating a kill cam. In it, there are images and collections of text that detail the “cruelties” witnessed by Helsingin Sanomat’s reporters.
“Ordinary Russians know practically nothing about the war crimes and atrocities toward civilians committed by the Russian army,” Mukka says.
“One of the most touching stories in the secret room is about a Ukrainian man that went to the store. While he was there, Russian troops killed his family with a missile strike. The secret room built into the game is meant to force Russian gamers to face what’s really going on in the war in Ukraine.”
The de_vonya map is currently available to download with CS: GO.