A Finnish news outlet has used a custom Counter-Strike: Global Offensive map to provide Russian players with news on the war in Ukraine, which is typically censored by the country’s state media.
The map was commissioned by journalists at Helsingin Sanomat, who wanted to “embed real-life war news” within a secret room in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO).
Spreading “false information” about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is punishable by a 15-year prison sentence, meaning journalists operating outside of the country’s state-controlled media have been unable to safely report on the war.
To bypass this, the map commissioned by Helsingin Sanomat — titled de_voyna — features a secret room that can only be accessed when players are killed, at which point they’re given free roam to pass through walls and floors.
Hidden beneath the map, this secret room contains walls of information detailing alleged Russian war crimes, including statistics on missile strikes that targeted civilians and reports of a Russian-perpetrated massacre in the Ukrainian city of Bucha.
The room also includes news stories of the war narrated in Russian, along with the number of Russian soldiers who have been killed in Ukraine. However, the exact figure has been disputed between Ukrainian, United States and Russian authorities.
While Helsingin Sanomat‘s in-game figure sits at 70,000, the outlet acknowledged that “precise victim counts are impossible to get, because all parties are downplaying their losses and exaggerating those of the opponent”.
The map was released on May 2, and has been created by two “well-known” map designers who have chosen to remain anonymous.
“Russia’s senseless aggression on Ukraine has killed tens of thousands of civilians, including children,” shared the developers. “The least we can do is to bring Putin’s war crimes and Russian propaganda to light.”
Earlier in the week, Finland launched a Fortnite map to promote the country’s Eurovision submission ‘Cha Cha Cha’.