Report claims Russian troops fired a missile at the object in Siberia, but soon regretted it
Daniel Smith Interim Head of Operations – Content Hub & GAU
13:03, 12 Feb 2026Updated 13:08, 12 Feb 2026
Remains of the UFO and the petrified troops were transferred to a secret scientific research institution
One of the most bizarre accounts of a close encounter with a UFO hails from the former Soviet Union, involving an incident where dozens of soldiers were allegedly turned to stone by irate extraterrestrials.
As per a report from that era, in 1993, military forces in Siberia reportedly downed an alien spacecraft using a surface-to-air missile.
Five entities supposedly emerged from the debris, merging into a radiant sphere that emitted a beam of light, instantly petrifying 23 soldiers, leaving only a handful of survivors to recount the eerie event.
This peculiar tale found its way into a Ukrainian newspaper and was even mentioned in a now-declassified CIA file. The file noted that if the account were true, it would suggest the existence of highly advanced alien technology that could pose a significant threat when antagonised.
The then-USSR publicly dismissed reports of UFO sightings and alien visitations as mere Western fabrication.
However, recently disclosed documents reveal that the Soviets were covertly documenting and analysing unusual aerial phenomena.
Throughout the 70s and 80s, these institutions routinely recorded what they termed ‘Abnormal Atmospheric Phenomena’.
One of the most remarkable entries bears the date February 13, 1989, and details a massive airborne object spotted over Nalchik, in southern Russia. Eyewitnesses described a ‘jellyfish’-shaped formation that allegedly hovered in the heavens for over an hour before disappearing entirely.
Though absent from these documents, the most notorious incident involved a low-flying, disc-shaped vessel materialising above Soviet military personnel during training exercises in Siberia.
Following the craft’s destruction by missile strike, five beings reportedly emerged from the debris before combining into a singular “spherical object” that “began to buzz and hiss sharply”, expanded dramatically and detonated, producing a brilliant flash that allegedly transformed 23 soldiers into stone columns in an instant. Two survivors purportedly escaped this fate due to being less exposed to the phenomenon.
The wreckage of the UFO and the petrified military personnel were allegedly transported to a classified scientific facility near Moscow, where analysis supposedly revealed the men had been converted into a material matching limestone.
Whilst the CIA did acknowledge the Ukrainian account, which referenced KGB sources, the document merely reproduces the 1993 Ukrainian piece and forms no part of an official investigation confirming its authenticity.