World of Tanks studio Wargaming has fired Sergey Burkatovskiy, russia’s creative director who supported the invasion of Ukraine.
Wargaming is a Belarusian company, and it has hundreds of employees in Kiev, Ukraine. Last night, kiev employees said in a statement about their situation that “we use all available resources to help and support over 550 colleagues, offer them alternative accommodation opportunities, pay their salaries early, cover the costs for their travel. We also help the families of our employees to travel to neighboring countries and shelter there. Also today, Wargaming Kiev donated $1 million to the Ukrainian Red Cross Organization. This donation will be used to support Ukrainian hospitals and doctors, citizens displaced from their homes and to assist in other vital activities of this humanitarian organization. We will increase our assistance if necessary.”
Almost entirely contrary to this statement, Sergey Burkatovskiy later deleted a Facebook message saying that the Russian Federation, DPR and LPR support Armed Forces operations. Wargaming then issued a statement saying that “these are his own personal views, they do not reflect the firm’s position.”
When Burkatovskiy continued his stance, he explained that “he was terminated and no longer works with us.”
Wargaming also stopped all Wargaming ads and removed images of tanks and other military vehicles advancing from advertising materials. The images were removed and advertising resumed, but they still don’t advertise in Ukraine because they said it would be “highly inappropriate and reckless to advertise our games when we are at the center of the conflict.”
