How a UFO over the Soviet Carpathian region almost unleashed a nuclear war?

How a UFO over the Soviet Carpathian region almost unleashed a nuclear war?

At the end of the XX century, the world was gripped by a real UFO mania. Strange lights and glowing objects appeared in the skies above American cities, NATO submarines hunted unknown and elusive Quakers in the oceans, sincerely believing that the Russians were to blame, and astronauts reported on strange objects observed in the portholes of space stations.

UFOs are interested in nuclear weapons

The airspace over the USSR was no exception. The incident over Petrozavodsk, the battle of unidentified spacecraft over the Kola Peninsula, which ended with the explosion of a UFO, and other incidents could not but alarm the Soviet military.

In 1978, during the flight of the Soyuz-29 spacecraft, its commander Vladimir Kovalenok reported to the MCC that an unidentified object of "medium brightness" was observed to the right of it. Later, the Colonel-General of aviation and twice Hero of the Soviet Union admitted to journalists that this was not the only case of observation of an unidentified object.

The second time, in the spring of 1981, he saw an object of a more complex shape, which in the eyes of the astronaut crashed in the Earth's atmosphere: it exploded and went to an emergency landing. But the most disturbing thing was that UFOs pointed attention to nuclear power plants, appearing over experimental or operational reactors and actively interested in military nuclear facilities.

They didn't hide it

In the USSR, the last straw of the military's patience was an incident on October 4, 1982, when eight unidentified objects were visually recorded over the command post of the 50th Division of the Strategic Missile Forces of the Carpathian Military District. Here is how Colonel Alexander Plaksin describes this event, who, as journalists say in the film "Aliens. History of military secrets", from 1979 to 1991 was an expert on anomalous aerospace phenomena: "During the observation of the phenomena, the control system of the missile systems of the entire division actually completely failed, the indicators of the call board lit up, including the "Launch" banner.

UFO sightings

The military experienced a few unpleasant moments, but when the objects disappeared, the equipment seemed to return to normal by itself. Further checks showed that the system is fully functional. Some ufologists later announced that the alleged UFO could even launch nuclear missiles at the United States. This is not the case, the launch of missiles with nuclear warheads requires the direct participation of people. It is not only necessary to enter a secret code — before this, you need to "fasten" the missile heads that carry the charge, which is stored separately, and fill the engines with fuel. The launch could only be made if the missile systems were already on high alert.

But nevertheless, the failure of the equipment made such a depressing impression on the military that no one was going to justify it with other reasons. In Moscow, and reported at the risk of shoulder straps: the reason-a UFO. The situation was complicated by the fact that the objects were not just recorded by radar — they approached the location of the division from the west of the border.

By the shoulder straps! Blame the UFO!

Radio operator-operative Vladimir Matveev, a native of Beloretsk, who in 1981-1983 served in the military unit No. 03389, located in Novy Belokorovichi, said that together with other soldiers of the unit he witnessed the events. Together with his friend Yevgeny Kiselev, a native of the city of Ishimbay (Bashkiria), he saw how an elliptical plate "hung over the neighboring military unit No. 32156 about a kilometer and a half from them."

The size of the object was approximately equal to a four-story five-story house. This was seen by the platoons of the training school and the radio operators who came up from the shift. Later, the military came to the conclusion that the oval of the object consisted of three parts, each of which contained some glowing parts. From the objects and to the objects, some small luminous dots were constantly flying away and flying up.

Later, the specialists of the telephone and telegraph center said that the next day, the major of the division headquarters reported the incident to Mozhaisk, where the headquarters of the RVSN was located, and the officer had to swear by the party ticket that he was telling the truth. The officer claimed that he left the unit by car and drove up to the object at a distance of 200 meters, after which the UFO began to move away from him. At the same time, the equipment that listened to the broadcast wrote silence — all radio interference disappeared. Then it turned out that the equipment was out of order.

Don't open fire!

After the report, a commission arrived from Mozhaisk to investigate the incident. The employee of the secret military research institute, the scientist-technician Boris Sokolov, was directly involved in the investigation. Later, after the collapse of the USSR, he admitted that the case over the Carpathian region was not the first: before him, with the presence of "saucers", two more incidents were recorded at military nuclear facilities of the USSR. The scientist came to the conclusion that the objects were real: atmospheric phenomena or ball lightning radars simply would not see.

UFO sightings

A survey of witnesses showed that the objects were indeed similar to aircraft, and they moved at such a speed and maneuvered so that their artificial origin was undoubted. However, the commission could not answer the question of who they were.

Radio operator Matveev recalled that after the departure of the commission on the parade ground, an order was read out to the personnel so that in the future, when the military personnel met with AAI (abnormal aviation phenomena), they would not open fire in any case, but report to the commanders.

Later it turned out that almost simultaneously with the events in the Carpathian Region on the other side of the Earth, in the United States, there was almost a similar case: at the command post of the base of the strategic nuclear forces, the system for preparing for the launch of intercontinental ballistic missiles worked. The duty crew was forced to launch an additional check, after which it turned out that the automation took a group of UFOs for Russian missiles, which was also recorded by radars.

There are many questions and few answers

It became known about these events, oddly enough, from American journalists, who allegedly in the dashing 1990s, someone from the military sold a package of certain documents, among which were the explanatory notes of the officers of the units attacked by UFOs.

Russian researcher Vyacheslav Akulov, studying witness statements and documents, came to the conclusion that the servicemen saw the bombing, which was just at that time carried out in the Belarusian military district at the Ruzhany training ground 290 kilometers from the scene of the incident. He suggests that special atmospheric conditions, the effect of refraction, as well as the fact that the bombing was carried out from a height of ten kilometers, allowed the servicemen to see certain phenomena that they took for UFOs. Perhaps it is not for nothing that some officers said that the objects were "in the form of chandeliers" and "rotated".

UFO sightings

However, this does not explain either the failure in the equipment of the control panel of the missile systems or the fact that the UFO was recorded (and was it?) radar, as well as the confidence with which not only the witnesses but also the scientists who investigated the incident came to the conclusion that the Soviet military had encountered an unknown phenomenon.

By that time, UFO research in the USSR was in full swing. Most of the phenomena managed to find explanations, but 8% did not respond to them. Perhaps that is why, until the collapse of the USSR, the country had an extensive military program for the study of "saucers". But nothing is known about the data it collected so far.


About author:

Ufologist, PhD, blogger, I go on my own expeditions for UFOs. I use scientific methods to investigate the UAP phenomenon

Serg Toporkov

Ufologist, Ph.D., blogger, I go on my own expeditions for UFOs. I use scientific methods to investigate the UAP phenomenon. Write to me


Related tags:

UFO  UFOs  Quakers  USSAR  Soviet Union  1978  1981  Petrozavodsk  military unit  flying saucers  nuclear war


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