A newly resurfaced CIA document from the Cold War era is reviving bizarre and unsettling claims that a group of Soviet soldiers in Ukraine were allegedly turned to stone by extraterrestrials following a hostile encounter with a UFO.
The file, believed to have been declassified after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, contains a translated 250-page KGB report detailing the alleged incident, which is said to have occurred between 1989 and 1990.
The CIA report, first brought to public attention in a 1993 article published by Weekly World News and recently cited by The New York Post, recounts an extraordinary series of events during a Soviet military training exercise where troops reportedly engaged a low-flying, saucer-shaped craft, only to be met with devastating consequences.
From missile fire to extraterrestrial retaliation
According to the translated KGB file, Soviet troops encountered what was described as a “low-flying spaceship in the shape of a saucer.” One soldier launched a surface-to-air missile, striking the object and causing it to crash near the training ground. What followed, the report suggests, defied all rational explanation.
“It fell to Earth not far away, and five short humanoids with ‘large heads and large black eyes’ emerged from it,” the file claims. Surviving soldiers described the alien figures merging into a single, glowing sphere.
“In a few seconds, the spheres grew much bigger and exploded by flaring up with an extremely bright light. At that very instant, 23 soldiers who had watched the phenomenon turned into … stone poles.
Only two soldiers who stood in the shade and were less exposed to the luminous explosion survived,” the report alleges.
A “horrific picture of revenge”
The KGB document further claims that the remains of the 23 soldiers, who were reportedly turned into a limestone-like substance, were seized and transported along with the wreckage of the UFO to a secret facility near Moscow for further study. Soviet scientists allegedly determined that the soldiers’ cellular structures had been irreversibly transformed.
An unnamed CIA officer is quoted in the file, remarking, “This is a horrific picture of revenge on the part of extraterrestrial creatures.” The agency added, “If the KGB file corresponds to reality, this is an extremely menacing case.
The aliens possess weapons and technology that go beyond all our assumptions. They can stand up for themselves if attacked.”
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Experts cast doubt on authenticity
Despite the dramatic nature of the claims, experts and former intelligence officials are urging caution. Former CIA operative Mike Baker, speaking to Fox News, voiced skepticism about the contents and reliability of 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 said.
With limited evidence beyond the alleged KGB file and no official corroboration from independent sources, the incident remains deeply speculative. Still, the report adds another layer of mystery to Cold War-era UFO folklore—one where fact, fiction, and fear of the unknown often blurred under the shroud of secrecy.
As sensational as the claims may be, intelligence historians caution that such files should be examined critically, especially when sourced from unofficial translations or tabloid-style outlets.
Until new evidence emerges, the story of Soviet soldiers turned to stone by alien technology remains lodged in the shadowy space between conspiracy theory and Cold War mythology.