A secret room is hidden in the new map of the Counter-Strike game, which is popular in Russia, where HS collected factual information about the war in Ukraine that was censored in Russia.
The game map reminds of the battles fought in Ukraine. Helsingin sanomat newspaper
War is also a crisis for freedom of speech and truth. This is especially emphasized in Russia, where reporting on the war is subject to strict state censorship. Many independent news agencies have been shut down in Russia or have stopped operating.
Helsingin sanomat newspaper developed a way to get independent news even to the closed eastern neighbor. Popular with millions of Russians Counter-Strike: Global Offensive – a new map was developed for the game by HS. A secret room was hidden on the map, where HS has collected independent factual information about the horrors of the war.
This is what the secret room on the map looks like. Helsingin sanomat newspaper
Counter-Strike is a game developed by the American Valve, where two different teams fight each other. The game is not banned in Russia, and an estimated four million Russians play it.
Information has been collected in the secret room, including the massacre of civilians by the Russians in Butša, attacks on civilian targets, and the number of people who died in the war, which HS was able to verify at 70,000. The secret room can be accessed after dying in the game, after which the player can explore the environment and go through walls.
This is what the wall of the secret room looks like, with information about the massacre of civilians by the Russians in Butša. Helsingin sanomat newspaper
– Russia’s senseless attack on Ukraine has killed tens of thousands of civilians, including children. The least we can do is to expose Putin’s war crimes and Russian propaganda, said the authors of the map, who remain anonymous.
The map commissioned by HS was published on May 2, 2023. The map is called de_voyna, which can be downloaded from here.