UFO crashed in Siberia after being shot at by troops – who soon regretted their decision to open fire
Daniel Smith Interim Head of Operations – Content Hub & GAU
12:53, 12 Feb 2026Updated 12:56, 12 Feb 2026
Remains of the UFO and the petrified troops were transferred to a secret scientific research institution
One of the strangest reports of a close encounter with a UFO comes from the old Soviet Union, and ended with dozens of soldiers turned into stone by angry aliens.
According to a report from the time, troops shot down an alien spacecraft flying in the skies above Siberia in 1993 using a surface-to-air missile.
Five beings emerged from the wreckage, fused into a blazing orb that sent out a beam of light that turned 23 soldiers into stone on the spot, leaving just a few survivors to tell the tale.
The strange story made it to the pages of a Ukrainian newspaper, and the report was even noted in a since-declassified CIA file, which noted that if accurate, it would reveal a highly advanced alien technology that poses a significant threat if provoked.
It was long dismissed publicly by the then-USSR that reports of visiting UFOs and aliens were nothing more than Western nonsense.
However, it has not become apparent through newly shared documents that the Soviets quietly recorded and assessed strange objects in the sky
During the 70s and 80s, institutions regularly catalogued what they called ‘Abnormal Atmospheric Phenomena’.
One of the most striking entries is dated February 13, 1989, and describes a large aerial object over Nalchik, in southern Russia. Witnesses reported a ‘jellyfish’-like form that they said remained in the sky for more than an hour before vanishing from view.
Although not included in the files, the most infamous case saw a low‑flying, saucer‑shaped craft appearing above a Soviet military unit during training manoeuvres in Siberia.
After taking the craft out with a missile, five figures emerged from the wreckage before merging into a single “spherical object” that “began to buzz and hiss sharply”, grew in size and exploded, emitting a flash of light that turned 23 nearby soldiers into stone pillars instantly. Two survivors supposedly lived because they were less exposed.
It is claimed that the remains of the UFO and the petrified troops were transferred to a secret scientific research institution near Moscow, where it was determined that the men had been turned into a substance identical to limestone.
While the CIA did take notice of the Ukrainian report, which cited KGB leaks, the file is simply a reprint of the 1993 Ukrainian article and is not part of an investigative report validating its contents.