At the beginning of June 2025, photographs of a leaflet with rules of behavior in a Russian patriotic camp, where former participants in the invasion of Ukraine work, spread across the Internet. We have verified the accuracy of such publications.
According to viral posts, at the Russian summer camp “Land of Heroes,” where the counselors are supposedly veterans of military operations in Ukraine, children were given a memo “Rules of safe behavior during the patriotic shift.” In particular, it contains requirements not to sneak up on former military personnel from behind, not to provoke them, to keep hands in sight, not to speak foreign languages and not to wear blue clothes along with the yellow uniform. Several photographs of the memo are provided as evidence. Along with them, they often publish a photo of an advertisement allegedly posted in the same camp, which, on the contrary, is addressed to counselors - they are prohibited from bathing children “below the waist.” The photos were widely circulated in Facebook, X, Threads and other social networks, numerous videocollect tens of thousands views V TikTok.
"Country of Heroes"is a network of Russian free military-patriotic camps for teenagers aged 12 to 17 years. They appeared even before the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, in 2019, according to initiative Russian Military Historical Society. Every year, shifts are carried out at camps in different regions of the Russian Federation: for example, in 2025 — in the Chelyabinsk, Volgograd, Lipetsk and Omsk regions, as well as in the Republic of Bashkortostan. By the time photos with the memo went viral on social networks, started only one shift (May 28 in the Lipetsk region). Therefore, if the pictures are authentic, they were taken there.
Memo with rules of conduct
In total, “Verified” found three photographs of the memo. One of them, apparently, shows the cover of a booklet entitled “Red flag for a veteran: safe behavior during a patriotic shift”, the second shows the set of rules itself, and the third shows the same memo on a sheet of a different format, glued to a tree. All these materials are decorated in the signature yellow and red colors of the “Country of Heroes”, with the camp logo located below. However, it is impossible to reliably determine from the photographs where they were taken.
It is not reported that shift participants in the Lipetsk region were given such memos. website "Countries of Heroes" Telegram channel camp, nor in it group on VKontakte. Although the site has a separate tab with the rules of conduct for shift participants, they practically do not differ from similar instructions in other camps: cigarettes, alcohol and drugs are prohibited, you cannot damage camp property, swear, insult other people, etc.
Moreover, neither “Land of Heroes” nor the Russian media reported that participants in the invasion in Ukraine were working in the camp as counselors. Military only invite for meetings with children and reading lectures, such events are carried out on almost every shift. Some Russian publications clarify, that retired military personnel can work in the camp, but only with appropriate permission, and this rule was in effect even before the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Some sources say that leaflets with rules of behavior when communicating with veteran counselors were distributed to parents before the start of the shift. Accordingly, families should have received them at least by May 28 300 children. Firstly, it is extremely suspicious that so few photographs of the leaflet are being distributed, and secondly, additional questions arise about the photograph where the memo is glued to a tree.
Photos of the flyer originally appeared on TikTok on June 3. It is difficult to reliably establish the original source due to the peculiarities of the search on this platform, however, the earliest video that contained photographs of the booklet and the memo itself and which was found “Verified” published by @russian.insider. It is noteworthy that the next day he posted the same materials, this time having specified, that the memo was issued in a camp near Kaluga (although the “Land of Heroes” does not conduct shifts in the Kaluga region, and the region does not even border Lipetsk). The user @russian.insider publishes numerous clickbait videos both in support and condemnation of the invasion of Ukraine and the Kremlin's policies, as well as photos leaflets allegedly with promotions for “heroes of the Northern Military District” in Russian restaurants.
Announcement in the shower
Judging by the photo, the advertisement was printed on a regular A4 sheet and hung at the entrance to the shower room in the camp. Users who published this photo note that there are supposedly no booths there and this worries parents even more.
On TikTok, videos with this photo and a similar comment appeared at the end of May, and some were still May 27, the day before the start of the shift in the Lipetsk region. In addition, as stated above, only children between the ages of 12 and 17 are invited to the camp; they are unlikely to need help with washing.
A reverse Google image search revealed that the original photo was published on website companies selling and installing plastic windows in Belarus. There you can also find pictures of the same door from a different angle. However, there is no advertisement in the photographs - apparently, it was added using a photo editor.
Several different TikTok users spoke about the special requirements for shift participants and counselors at the “Land of Heroes” camp. Starting with a fabricated photo of a notice at the entrance to the shower and messages about a reminder about the rules of behavior, these bloggers continued to share more and more details - for example, they claimed that children were allegedly being woken up by the sounds of sirens. Also in these accounts posted a photo of a child’s drawing allegedly from nine-year-old Masha (although the camp is accepted only from the age of 12) with the inscription: “I don’t want to go there. There they kill dogs and whisper at night." Most of these publications are currently unavailable.
All these accounts are similar to each other - they allegedly publish news from Russia, diluting many fakes with truthful messages. For example, user @opposition.insider, in addition to a dozen different videos about counselors in the “Land of Heroes,” published video with fake photos leaflets with discounts for participants in the “special military operation” on May 9.
Thus, there is no evidence that military personnel returning from a combat zone become counselors in the Russian “Land of Heroes” camp, and children are required to behave in a certain way around them.
Cover photo: countryheroes.rf
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