Employees of the game developers for Call of Duty Modern Warfare II are providing aid to Ukrainian refugees out of their Krakow office in Poland after refugees fled Ukraine at the beginning of the Russian invasion.
More than two dozen employees of video game developer Infinity Ward offered shelter, food, work, and other services to the refugees, who were displaced after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian forces to invade Ukraine in February, according to a Wednesday report.
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Among those Associate Principal Software Engineer Andrew Shurney and his wife aided were a pregnant woman and her son. After the woman gave birth, she named the couple as the child’s godparents.
“Big picture-wise, there’s not much I can do,” Shurney told the Washington Post. “But I can at least help the person that’s sitting across from me, which maybe isn’t much, but it’s something.”
Shurney lives near a train station with his wife Aleksandra Poseukova, where thousands of refugees have camped out. Poseukova has also helped take care of the refugees by hiring them for certain tasks such as cleaning, watching her animals, and tailoring clothes.
Another employee, engineer Wiktor Czosnowski, took in a family. Despite fleeing the invasion, the mother had to return to Ukraine for chemotherapy, and she died while in Ukraine. However, because of a declaration of martial law, her son, who previously lived in Poland, was unable to attend his mother’s funeral.
“[Her son] cannot even go to her funeral because if you go [back into Ukraine], you cannot come back here,” Czosnowski said. “When you see how people’s lives go upside down and it’s a war without any bigger reason from the Russian-side, it makes me angry.”
Despite the reality of living in or near a war zone, Czosnowski said he takes comfort in how the country has responded to the crisis. Books are being printed in Ukrainian to ease those struggling with a language barrier, according to Czosnowski.
“This is the thing that is beautiful in this whole situation,” Czosnowski said. “How naturally two nations merge together from the beginning. From day zero people started helping and maybe there were voices based on some historical issues between our countries, but it was drowned out by people who would like to help.”
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Infinity Ward established its Krakow studio in 2018, located 50 miles from Kyiv. The purpose of the studio was to focus on research and development for Call of Duty.
The Call of Duty franchise has attracted millions of players around the globe over the past two decades.
