For eastern Ukrainians, a growing doubt: Is Russia manipulating us?

Shortly after pro-Russia rebels left this eastern Ukrainian town, Russia's state-owned Channel One broadcast a heart-wrenching interview with a refugee mother who had fled to Russia with her children.

The woman told a tearful story, claiming that she witnessed Ukrainian soldiers gather residents at the Slaviansk central square, to watch the “crucifixion like Jesus” of a three-year-old boy on a notice board at city hall. Then the boy’s mother, who had fainted, was tied to a tank and paraded around the square.

The studio anchor, shocked, said the “mind refuses to understand how such a thing is possible, these days in the center of Europe.”

Viewers in Slaviansk were just as shocked – because such an event never took place.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2014/0731/.U9p72eBPs0o.twitter