Soldiers turned to stone by aliens and ‘jellyfish’ UFO in Soviet X-Files | Weird | News
The soldiers were turned into stone pillars, accoording to reports (Image: undefined)
A ‘jellyfish’ UFO topped with changing coloured lights remained suspended above a Russian city for an hour before vanishing during the 1980s.
The bizarre incident features amongst a freshly released collection of Soviet-era files that reveal how authorities in the former USSR discreetly documented and evaluated mysterious aerial phenomena – despite publicly ridiculing visiting extraterrestrial vessels as Western propaganda.
The documentation, translated into English and released by journalist George Knapp, covers approximately 70 pages and compiles accounts from the 1970s and 1980s.
According to Knapp, the archive was smuggled out of Russia in the early 1990s and has only recently been made broadly available, providing the public with an unusual glimpse into how Soviet organisations catalogued what they termed ‘Abnormal Atmospheric Phenomena’.
Jellyfish-like UFO seen above a Soviet city in the 1980s (Image: undefined)
One of the most remarkable entries is dated February 13, 1989, and outlines a substantial aerial object over Nalchik, in southern Russia. Observers described a ‘jellyfish’-like formation that they claimed stayed in the sky for over an hour before disappearing from sight.
Additional reports include a young man describing bright streaks across the heavens followed by an encounter with humanoid beings, reports IBT. Investigators document the accounts and specifics but refrain from confirming what, if anything, the witness actually experienced.
A distinct 1979 incident in Kazakhstan involves campers who reported observing tall, dark figures close to a forested region. Once more, testimonies were uniform – yet no tangible evidence could substantiate anything concrete.
The records reference observations logged by members of the public, military personnel, and technical experts, alongside the protocols for gathering testimony, submitting reports, and evaluating potential explanations.
The UFO remained in the sky for more than an hour before vanishing (Image: undefined)
Whilst the documents don’t provide definitive proof of anything extraterrestrial, they do reveal a systematic attempt to monitor cases that couldn’t be easily categorised into established frameworks.
Numerous entries suggest terrestrial explanations such as atmospheric phenomena, equipment malfunctions or even experimental military aircraft. Some files contemplate whether particular sightings might have involved foreign technology – a pressing concern during the Cold War era – or merely uncommon natural occurrences.
One of the most notorious cases of a Russian UFO occurred in 1993, when state media claimed the military had shot down an extraterrestrial vessel in Siberia using a surface-to-air missile.
This purportedly resulted in an encounter with five humanoid entities who emerged from the debris. These beings allegedly merged into a single, luminous sphere that released a catastrophic flash of light, instantly transforming 23 nearby soldiers into stone pillars.
The report indicates that only two witnesses survived the incident, with the ensuing limestone debris and wreckage being moved to a secret research facility near Moscow.
US intelligence officials of the era noted that if these accounts were genuine, they signified a highly perilous threat from advanced extraterrestrial technology.
