World Of Warships and World Of Tanks developer Wargaming has fired creative director Sergey Burkatovskiy due to his public support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In a now-deleted tweet, Burkatovskiy said that he supports “the operation of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the DPR [Donetsk People’s Republic] and the LPR [Luhansk People’s Republic]”.

In retaliation, Wargaming then told Russian gaming site Cyber.Sports.ru that the statement is “his personal opinion, which categorically does not coincide with the position of the company.” The studio added that it is now “focused on helping our 550+ Kyiv colleagues and their families”.

The invasion of Russia in Ukraine has shaken the world, and that includes the games industry.  Wargaming has several studios located near the warzone, including Wargaming Kyiv and Persha Studio. They have provided an official statement on the matter earlier today.

The statement reads:

“At Wargaming, the safety and security of our employees is the top priority. Currently, all available company resources are helping and supporting our 550+ colleagues: providing them with alternate housing, early salary payments, additional funds to aid travel and relocation.

We are helping our employees’ families to travel neighboring countries and organizing accommodation for them.

And lastly, today Wargaming Kyiv are donating US$1m to the Ukrainian Red Cross. These funds will be used to support Ukrainian hospitals and doctors, those citizens who have been displaced and other vital activities of the humanitarian organization as is needed.

We will be able to proceed with further humanitarian help if situation requires.”