Crucified boy

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"Crucified Boy" (Russian: Распятый мальчик, romanized: Raspyaty malchik) is a reference to an anti-Ukrainian fake news story spread by Russian state-owned Channel One on July 12, 2014.

The story was first published by Eurasianist philosopher Aleksandr Dugin on 9 July 2014.^[1][2][3] It was then republished in news reports, officially titled "A refugee from Sloviansk recalls how a young son and a wife of a militiaman were executed in front of her". It contained allegations of a public crucifixion of a three-year-old boy performed by Ukrainian soldiers at "Lenin Square" in Sloviansk, as told by an alleged resident of Sloviansk, Halyna Pyshnyak (Ukrainian: Галина Пишняк, Russian: Галина Пышняк), a native of Zakarpattya. The story has become a staple example of Russian fake news.

The spread of the story served to distract from the Donetsk People's Republic's withdrawal from Sloviansk, and the cross-border shelling of Ukraine by Russian armed forces.