Secret room created in Counter-Strike to show Russians the truth about the war in Ukraine

A new map with a secret room has been added to the video game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with the aim of conveying truthful information about the war in Ukraine to Russian youth. This is a special project by Finland’s largest daily newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat.

The media site is blocked in Russia, so they decided to overcome censorship in an original way. The newspaper asked two developers to create a map called de_voyna. It looks like a typical district in a post-Soviet city.

The secret room is hidden in the basement beneath a memorial with an eternal flame, which can be accessed by stairs. Inside, there is a map of Russian strikes on civilian objects in Ukraine, as well as photographs of the consequences of the occupation of Kyiv Oblast. When the player approaches the images, they hear a radio broadcast in Russian, with a presenter recounting the killings of civilians by the occupiers. The room also features reportage from war correspondents of the newspaper on Ukraine.

The map was presented on May 3, World Press Freedom Day, and has already been downloaded over 2,000 times. According to the newspaper, Russia is one of the world’s leaders in terms of Counter-Strike fans, with between 3 and 4 million Russians playing the game.