A recently declassified CIA document posted on its website has gained significant attention, stirring intrigue with its claims of a supposed UFO attack on Soviet forces.
The viral report, initially released in May 2000, summarizes an article originally published by Canadian Weekly World News and the Ukrainian Holos Ukrayiny. It describes an alleged retaliatory strike by aliens after Soviet soldiers reportedly shot down a UFO flying over a military base. According to the account, the extraterrestrials emerged from the wreckage, fused together into one object, and exploded into a blinding light, turning all but two of the soldiers into stone.
“If the KGB file corresponds to reality, this is an extremely menacing case,” an unnamed CIA representative was quoted as saying in the report. “The aliens possess such weapons and technology that go beyond all our assumptions. They can stand up for themselves if attacked.”
The incident, according to Canadian Weekly World News, is said to have taken place between 1989 and 1990, though it was first published in 1993.
The document reveals that U.S. intelligence had obtained reports of a “low-flying spaceship in the shape of a saucer” over a Soviet military unit during training exercises. The soldiers, for “unknown reasons,” reportedly launched a surface-to-air missile at the aircraft, causing it to crash near the base.
“Five short humanoids with ‘large heads and large black eyes’ emerged” from the downed craft, the report claims. The beings supposedly fused into a “single object” while producing a loud buzzing noise, and then burst into a blinding light. Eyewitnesses allege that 23 soldiers were turned into “stone poles,” with only two men surviving due to their position in a shaded area that shielded them from the light. The remains of the “petrified soldiers” and the UFO were said to have been transported to a secret scientific research base near Moscow, where scientists discovered that the soldiers’ molecular structure resembled limestone. The document suggests that a “source of energy” not yet understood by humans caused this transformation.
The exact origins of the document remain unclear, though it is believed to have come from a telegram or another form of open-source information. However, former CIA agent Mike Baker has expressed skepticism about the extraordinary claims made in the report.
“If there was an incident, regardless of the nature of the incident, I suspect that the actual report doesn’t look much like what has now come out from five or six or seven iterations of what originally was [written],” Baker told Fox News Digital.
In 2020, the Department of Defense launched the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF) to “detect, analyze and catalog” unidentified objects that could pose a threat to national security. While UFOs are often linked to alien encounters, Baker argues that these investigations are primarily about ensuring national security rather than confirming extraterrestrial involvement.
“The Pentagon was saying if aviators are flying, and they identify something that they can’t readily say what this is, then [officials] should, as a matter of national security, make sure that they catalog it and figure out what it was,” Baker explained. “There’s a reason why you have a method of investigating these things. It doesn’t mean you’re investigating alien spacecraft, but that’s where people’s minds go when they hear about these sorts of things.”
Earlier this year, President Donald Trump signed an order to declassify government files related to UFOs, potentially revealing secrets and shedding light on possible cover-ups.
“A lot of people believe that there is a smoking gun somewhere in the files,” said Nick Pope, a former U.K. Defense Ministry official and UFO expert. “It is a very widely held belief that elements in the U.S. intelligence community know that some of this is extraterrestrial and have documents and files relating to this. And that, of course, is what everyone really wants to know. That’s the $64,000 question.”
While UFO enthusiasts remain intrigued by the claims of a Soviet-era alien encounter, Baker remains unconvinced.
“I’m sure there’s something out there,” he said. “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.”
