A declassified document posted to the CIA’s website is raising eyebrows with claims of an alleged UFO attack on Soviet forces. 

The viral report summarizes an article published by Canadian Weekly World News and the Ukrainian paper Holos Ukrayiny and was initially released to the public in May 2000. 

The firsthand report describes a retaliatory alien attack after Soviet soldiers reportedly shot down a UFO flying over a military base. 

The aliens reportedly emerged from the wreckage, fusing together into one object and bursting into a bright light and turning all but two of the soldiers to stone. 

"If the KGB file corresponds to reality, this is an extremely menacing case," an unnamed CIA representative was quoted as saying in the report. "The aliens possess such weapons and technology that go beyond all our assumptions. They can stand up for themselves if attacked." 

Canadian Weekly World News estimates the supposed incident occurred between 1989 and 1990 and was initially published in 1993. 

According to the document, information acquired by U.S. intelligence revealed reports of a "low-flying spaceship in the shape of a saucer" over a Soviet unit participating in training exercises. 

Officials wrote that "for unknown reasons" the soldiers launched a surface-to-air missile at the unknown aircraft, causing it to crash near the military base. 

The report describes how "five short humanoids with ‘large heads and large black eyes’ emerged" from the downed spaceship and fused together to create one "single object" while emitting a loud buzzing noise. 

The spherical object reportedly then burst into a blinding bright light. 

Eyewitness testimonials claim 23 soldiers suddenly "turned into stone poles." Two men reportedly survived the encounter because they were standing in a shaded area and were not completely exposed to the blast of light. 

Officials wrote that the remains of the "petrified soldiers" and the spaceship were transported to a secret scientific research base near Moscow, where it was discovered the soldiers’ molecular structure matched that of limestone. The document claims scientists believe the cause was a "source of energy" not yet known to humans. 

The CIA did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

While the initial context of the document remains unknown, it likely originated from a telegram or another form of open-source information.  

However, former CIA agent Mike Baker is skeptical of the extraordinary claims detailed in 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 told Fox News Digital. 

In 2020, the Department of Defense announcedthe creation of an Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF) with the goal to "detect, analyze and catalog" unknown objects that could pose a threat to national security. 

The creation of the program comes after years of government efforts to investigate questionable aircraft. While UFOs are typically associated with aliens, Baker insists officials are required to look into unidentified objects in the interest of national security. 

"The Pentagon was saying if aviators are flying, and they identify something that they can't readily say what this is, then [officials] should, as a matter of national security, make sure that they catalog it and figure out what it was," Baker told Fox News Digital. "There's a reason why you have a method of investigating these things. It doesn't mean you're investigating alien spacecraft, but that's where people's minds go when they hear about these sorts of things." 

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

Earlier this year, President Donald Trump signed an order to declassify decades-old government files pertaining to UFOs, possibly revealing federal secrets while pulling back the curtain on any potential "cover-up." 

"A lot of people believe that there is a smoking gun somewhere in the files," former U.K. Defense Ministry official and UFO expert Nick Pope told Fox News Digital. "It is a very widely held belief that elements in the U.S. intelligence community know that some of this is extraterrestrial and have documents and files relating to this. And that, of course, is what everyone really wants to know. That's the $64,000 question." 

As for the extraordinary claims of a Soviet-era alien invasion and retaliatory attack, Baker does not buy it. 

"I'm sure there's something out there," Baker said. "I just don't think that they landed decades ago, turned Soviet soldiers into limestone and we're just now hearing about it. I don't think that's the case."

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