Russian fighter jets once fired at possible extraterrestrial life forms after a pair of UFOs nearly caused World War III to break out, according to sworn testimony shared to Congress and obtained by Fox News.
The testimony was given by George Knapp, an award-winning Las Vegas-based journalist who has repeatedly reported on UFOs, now known as UAPs (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena), and the alleged conspiracies surrounding them.
According to Knapp, there was a time when the Russian military actually deployed fighter jets to fire on UFOs following an incident that nearly pushed the world into a globe-spanning nuclear war.
How did UFOs clash with Russian fighter pilots, take over ICBM base?
In the testimony, Knapp said that the Russians had carried out what may have been the largest-ever UFO investigation in history, spanning a decade and the entire breadth of the Russian military echelon. He said he had spoken with a Russian military official, Col. Boris Sokolov, who said that there had been no less than 45 different incidents where Russian fighter jets had clashed with UFOs – with Russian jets crashing in three of these incidents, resulting in the deaths of two pilots in clashes with UFOs.
One incident that really raised alarm bells, though, was at a Russian ICBM base in Ukraine. According to Sokolov, the UFOs "somehow took control of the launch system."
Knapp described it as follows:
"UFOs appeared over the base, performed astonishing maneuvers in front of stunned eyewitnesses and then somehow took control of the launch system. The missiles were aimed at the US and were suddenly fired up. Launch control codes were somehow entered, and the base was unable to stop what could have initiated World War 3. Then, just as suddenly, the UFOs disappeared, and the launch-control system shut down."
After these incidents, the Russian Defense Ministry supposedly issued a hands-off order for UFOs, which they said should be left alone since "they may have incredible capacities for retaliation."
All of this is alarming enough, but it also flies in the face of claims the US has made about UFOs since the late 1960s.
"Since 1969, the position of our military has been that UFOs pose no threat to national security and are not worthy of further study. This dismissive attitude is directly at odds with what was revealed in documents, reports, and internal memos," Knapp wrote.
"High-ranking military officers considered the UFO mystery to be 'serious business.' The paper trail revealed via FOIA requests documents how military leaders knew that UFOs were 'real, not fictitious,' that they were metallic craft, capable of incredible maneuvers far beyond any known technology on Earth, and that there were a disturbing number of incidents wherein UFOs seemed to demonstrate an intense interest in our military assets, in particular nuclear weapons. If this is not a matter of national security, what is?"
And Knapp isn't alone in sharing these concerns. Also testifying at Congress was investigative journalist Jeremy Corbell, who said UFOs are a major concern and may have us outgunned.
"UAP have proven that they can operate with impunity within our airspace. This is occurring almost every day, often within our restricted airspace," Corbell wrote in his testimony, also obtained by Fox News.
"And most alarmingly, UAP are witnessed, documented and often captured on corroborative multi-platform defense sensors and targeting systems while displaying the capability to outpace, outmaneuver, and outperform our most advanced military weaponry; or any other known technologically advanced terrestrial nation’s military inventory and private industry holdings."
Fighting for UFO transparency from the government
The issue of UFOs and UAPs has captivated public attention for decades. Despite this, the US government has stayed silent on the issue for years. The reason for this is believed to be that UFOs are security concerns rather than scientific issues, which means they need to be kept classified.
However, circumstances have changed in recent years, with Congress holding multiple hearings on the subject and NASA even launching an official investigative task force into UAPs. While this in part may have been motivated by reports of Chinese spy balloons, the issue soon ballooned out from a geopolitical security issue to reports of other, far stranger, unidentified flying objects.
Back in July, former Navy pilot Ryan Graves was joined by retired US Navy commander David Fravor and former Air Force intelligence officer David Grusch, who all testified regarding the US government’s knowledge of the mysterious flying objects.
“The technology that we faced was far superior to anything that we had,” Fravor said of an alleged sighting he made in 2004. Grusch added that “non-human” pilots had been recovered by the US government throughout their UFO research, though he said he did not have a first-hand account of any non-human or alien sightings and that his claims are based on “extensive interviews with high-level intelligence officials.”
Back in April, declassified UFO data was shared by Sean M. Kirkpatrick, who heads the Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) to study UFOs. According to him, that there were around 650 incidents being tracked by the agency. One of these incidents was dated July 12, 2022, which depicted a US military MQ-9 Reaper drone somewhere in the Middle East. In the footage, it can be seen monitoring a strange, metallic silver orb-like object flying around below it at seemingly very high speeds while the drone's camera tries to follow it.
However, this isn't the only time this particular UFO had been seen - apparently, there have been many other sightings of a strange flying metallic orb in the Middle East.
The subject has also become more interesting for scientists, with a study published earlier in 2023 indicating over a third (37%) of US academics are interested in researching UFOs while a large minority (19%) have either witnessed or know someone who has witnessed UAPs.
Chief among them is Israeli-American astrophysicist Avi Loeb, former head of Harvard's Astronomy Department.
Back in 2021, Loeb launched the Galileo Project, which aims to bring the search for alien life purely into the science sector. Since its founding, the project has grown to have millions in funds and has amassed a long list of academics from around the world.
Another prominent researcher is Stanford University professor Dr. Garry Nolan. Despite not being an astrophysicist like Loeb (Nolan is best known as an immunologist), Nolan has been very active in the study of UFOs/UAPs after his 2012 analysis of what was believed to be an alien corpse found in Chile. This later progressed to research to UAPs and how they impacted the brains of those who observed them.
His work has seen him collaborate with government task forces, the CIA, and publish peer-reviewed articles about UFOs.
At the recent Salt iConnections conference in New York, Nolan revealed that he thinks advanced and intelligent alien life has "100%" not only already visited Earth, are still here, and have "been here for a long time."
This concern is now being repeated by US lawmakers, many of whom are calling for data about UFOs to be shared with the public.
"We can't trust a government that does not trust its people," Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tennessee) said at a recent Congressional hearing, with both Democrats and Republicans calling for UFO records to be released.
Corbell also urged for greater transparency and called for accountability for those who have kept this information hidden up until now.
"This decision may have been initially righteous, but has built and become an unregulated bureaucratic machine, lacking a moral and ethical compass," he wrote.
"The reasons for secrets in the past are now antiquated and presumptuous; they contradict the fundamental tenets of a free and open society."
He added that the current system the US military has for reporting UAP encounters is fundamentally flawed.
"The systems analysis and information flow of UAP encounters, engagements and sightings, are too often swept under the rug or ignored for reasons of stigma or careerism," Corbell said.
"Should a military pilot be unlucky enough to see a UAP, what can they expect? A debrief which then turns into an aggressive and confrontational interrogation where the threat of demotion is made abundantly clear."
He continued: "This system is broken - and for the good of our country and the safety of our brave service members, we must fully commit to repairing our country's critically wounded UAP reporting process. Ultimately, what I have learned through these years enveloped in the trust imbued into me by the direct witnesses to the UAP presence is this: that we are ready for the truth and are now demanding it, whatever it might be or wherever the chips may fall."
Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.