Nearly every church of the Russian Orthodox Church in occupied Crimea advertises the opportunity to send children on an “active holiday with spiritual development.”

The main “spiritual” message of these camps is that giving one’s life for Russia is not something to fear but, on the contrary, an honorable act. This is stated in a report by the online publication Semaat.

The daily schedule at the camp includes morning and evening prayers, hand-to-hand combat and shooting lessons, assembly and disassembly of assault rifles, folk dances in kokoshniks, and playing balalaikas and accordions. Children’s phones are confiscated and returned only for a few minutes in the evening so they can call their parents.

According to the article, the Brotherhood of Orthodox Pathfinders, a group operating under the auspices of the Russian Orthodox Church, has been actively working on the peninsula since 2023.

Among the activities the “brothers” offer in children’s camps are meetings with “heroes of the Special Military Operation,” training in sabotage activities, assault games, and, of course, prayers.

Children are subjected to indoctrination at their parents’ expense. The experience is far from cheap. For example, two weeks for one child at the Rekrut camp costs a family 70,000 rubles, approximately $1,000. Large and low-income families have also been taken into account, as the church covers the cost for their children. There are also free programs whose participants work in monasteries or churches as part of their obedience duties.

State involvement in the project is hardly concealed. On the Pravoslavie.ru website, the peninsula is described as the “center of youth pilgrimage in 2026,” while diocesan camps are called the “foundation of Orthodox recreation.”

As LF previously reported, the Kremlin is attempting to justify its prolonged war against Ukraine by using long-standing false narratives claiming that “the Ukrainian government suppresses religious freedoms.” This was stated in a report by analysts from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

Earlier, we reported that the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, praised the efforts of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow in supporting participants in the “special military operation.”

According to LF, in November 2025 Patriarch Kirill Gundyayev stated that military heroism is “inseparable” from spiritual achievement and that participation in war may be regarded as a form of Christian service. This attempt to justify war through spiritual rhetoric provoked an immediate and sharp reaction within church circles.

According to Regina Elsner, Doctor of Theology and researcher of Eastern Christianity and ecumenism at the University of Münster, the Russian Orthodox Church has become one of the key institutions of mobilization and propaganda.

Earlier, we reported that Pope Leo XIV and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I condemned attempts to use religion to justify violence.