Secret room in CS:GO map informing Russians about the Ukraine war

Helsingin Sanomat, a famous daily newspaper in Finland, created a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive map containing a secret room.

According to Reuters, in the Russia-Ukraine war, up to 354,000 people have died and at least 193,500 injured. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, this newspaper has covered most of the news of the Russia-Ukraine war. Now it has developed a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive map named "de_voyna". "Voyna" is the Russian word for "war", a term not allowed to describe what's happening in Ukraine.

Helsingin Sanomat’s editor-in-chief, Antero Mukka, explains:

"The gaming world and gamers themselves are still left unchecked in Russia. 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 uncensored access to the horrors of the war in their native language."

While battleground games are very popular in Russia, Helsingin Sanomat took this opportunity to develop a CS: GO map that will contain depictions of the aggression of Russia in Ukraine. Finally, they developed it on May 2, 2023. This map contains a secret, red-blooded room full of clues. The de_voyna map is available through a subscription on Steam.

Once players die, they will be able to roam freely around the map and find the underground room with a light over its entrance as you can see above. Its entrance is symbolized by an eternal flame-burning car. In the room, they will see a newspaper with information about the war in Ukraine. They will discover a map that details the locations in Ukraine where Russian soldiers have attacked. There will be a table that lists the number of Russians who have been killed, a story of a man whose family was killed by a Russian deadly missile, and some radio voices.

Gamers will find accounts of massacres in Odessa, Bucha, and many other places. For safety, the two map designers wish to remain anonymous. To them, making this map was a humanitarian action.