Declassified CIA file details claims from Ukrainian newspaper that soldiers fired missile at craft in Siberia, only to be petrified by its vengeful occupants Share Article Share Article Facebook X LinkedIn Reddit Bluesky Email Copy Link Link copied Bookmark Comments
One of the strangest stories of an unidentified flying object encounter comes from the old Soviet Union, centering on an event where scores of service members were supposedly transformed into stone statues by alien beings.
Based on a record from that era, in 1993, military personnel downed an extraterrestrial vehicle soaring above Siberia with a surface-to-air projectile.
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Five lifeforms reportedly materialized from the debris and coalesced into a radiant sphere that projected a beam of light, instantly turning 23 troops to stone, leaving only a few remaining personnel to narrate the happening.
This curious narrative surfaced in a Ukrainian publication and was even noted in a released CIA document, which posited that if accurate, it would point to the presence of exceptionally advanced alien technology representing a considerable hazard when provoked.
Regardless of open denial by the former USSR, which stated accounts of UFO sightings and alien interactions were merely Western inventions, recently uncovered papers expose that the Soviets were discreetly cataloging and examining peculiar airborne occurrences.
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Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, institutions consistently documented what they referred to as ‘Anomalous Atmospheric Phenomena’.
One of the most noteworthy entries is marked 13th February 1989, and describes a sizable aerial object over Nalchik, in southern Russia. Observers depicted a ‘jellyfish’-esque shape that they alleged lingered in the sky for over an hour prior to vanishing from view.
Though not present in the documents, the most famous instance involved a low-altitude, disc-shaped aircraft materializing above a Soviet military division during training drills in Siberia.
Subsequent to destroying the vehicle with a projectile, five entities emerged from the remnants before coalescing into a solitary “spherical object” that “began to hum and crackle loudly”, increased in size, and detonated, releasing a flash of light that transformed 23 nearby soldiers into stone columns without delay. Two survivors purportedly lived due to reduced exposure.
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It is purported that the remains of the UFO and the petrified service members were relocated to a clandestine scientific research facility near Moscow, where it was ascertained that the men had been converted into a material identical to limestone.
Whilst the CIA did take notice of the Ukrainian account, which referenced KGB leaks, the document is merely a copy of the 1993 Ukrainian piece and does not represent an investigative report validating its contents.