Documents presented as declassified CIA files have recently gone viral, reviving one of the most astonishing claims of the Cold War: that Soviet soldiers allegedly turned to stone after encountering aliens. The document, presenting what is supposed to be a 250-page report from the KGB, details an incident where a UFO controlled by extraterrestrials appeared over a Soviet military unit conducting routine training maneuvers in Ukraine, causing panic among the soldiers.
The report describes a low-flying spaceship in the shape of a saucer that appeared above the Soviet unit during training. For unknown reasons, someone unexpectedly launched a surface-to-air missile at the UFO, which allegedly hit and downed it. From the crashed flying saucer, five extraterrestrial beings emerged, described as short humanoids with large heads and large black eyes by the surviving soldiers.
As the soldiers opened fire on the beings, the aliens regrouped and merged into a single object that acquired a spherical shape, resulting in an energy explosion that burst into a bright light. At that moment, 23 soldiers who were observing the situation turned into stone posts, with only two soldiers surviving, as they were not caught in the light from the extraterrestrial beings.
According to the report, the KGB allegedly confiscated the remains of the petrified soldiers and the destroyed spacecraft and transported them to a secret research center near Moscow. According to The Economic Times, Soviet scientists found that the molecular structures of the soldiers had been altered and now resembled limestone.
The file attributed to the CIA notes, "If the KGB file corresponds to reality, this is an extremely menacing case." suggesting that the aliens possess weapons and technology that go beyond all assumptions. The report summarizes coverage by Canadian Weekly World News and the Ukrainian newspaper Holos Ukrayiny.
Experts strongly question the authenticity of the content of the CIA documents. "I'm sure there's something out there. I just don't think that they landed decades ago, turned Soviet soldiers into limestone, and we're just now hearing about it. I don't think that's the case," said
Former CIA agent Tracy Walder also cast doubt on the report of the alleged alien attack. "This is not a document that the CIA originated," she said, according to Vice News. Walder explained that the report actually came from an open-source service called the Foreign Broadcast Information Service, and reassured the public that the report wasn't written by the CIA.
Interest in UFOs, now officially termed UAPs (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena), surged in recent years. In 2020, the U.S. Department of Defense formed a UAP Task Force to track, analyze, and catalog unusual aerial sightings. According to The Economic Times, last year alone, the Pentagon received 757 UAP reports from the public between May 2023 and June 2024. While most UAP reports were attributed to balloons, drones, or satellites, some incidents left researchers puzzled, including a near-collision between a commercial aircraft and a mysterious flying object near New York.
The article was written with the assistance of a news analysis system