Russia's Chilling UFO Files: Nukes Aimed at New York Nearly Fired As Aliens Vanished

In October 1982, the world may have come within minutes of catastrophe. Russian officers claim that unidentified objects once took control of nuclear missiles aimed at New York, before vanishing into the night.

According to secret Soviet documents, the weapons were fully primed to launch, and only the sudden disappearance of the UFOs stopped an apocalyptic strike that could have obliterated America's largest city in just 25 minutes.

The incident, preserved in restricted military files that were later surfaced in journalistic reports, has since become one of the most chilling near-misses of the Cold War.

The Night The Sky Went Mad Over Usovo

The drama unfolded above a missile base near the small hamlet of Usovo in what is now Ukraine. Officers from a secret Ministry of Defence programme later described a surreal sky filled with multiple glowing objects that shifted shape, changed colour and darted at impossible speeds. Some hovered silently while others streaked across the horizon before freezing mid-air as if observing the base.

High-ranking witnesses sketched what they saw, producing drawings of strange formations hanging directly above launch silos and surrounding military installations. Their accounts were stamped with official seals and preserved in restricted files, suggesting that the sightings were taken seriously at the highest levels of the Soviet military.

Rather than a fleeting mystery light, this was a prolonged encounter that lasted long enough for trained personnel to study the objects and record their behaviour in detail.

How The Launch Codes Moved Themselves in 1982

The most alarming testimony came from a senior communications officer inside the control bunker. He claimed that the launch console suddenly lit up without any human input, as though an invisible hand had entered the correct firing codes.

Nuclear missiles capable of reaching New York were reportedly placed on full alert, ready to fire. According to the officer, Soviet staff were powerless to cancel the sequence and watched in horror as the system appeared to act on its own.

Then, at the exact moment the UFOs vanished from the sky, the launch process abruptly stopped. Power to the missiles returned to normal and the base avoided what could have been the spark for global nuclear war.

To the witnesses, the link between the objects overhead and the malfunction below seemed impossible to dismiss.

The Terrifying Echo at Malmstrom in America

The Usovo incident is not isolated. In 1967 at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana, retired US personnel have told a strikingly similar story.

They reported seeing red glowing UFOs hovering near nuclear silos. Shortly afterwards, multiple missiles were said to have shut down simultaneously, leaving American officers unable to control or launch them for around 10 minutes.

This episode has since been raised in US Congress by former military staff as part of hearings on unidentified aerial phenomena and nuclear security. The fact that both superpowers experienced comparable incidents during the Cold War has added weight to claims that something unknown was actively interacting with atomic weapons.

For many researchers, the parallel between Usovo and Malmstrom is too close to be coincidence.

What The Documents Reveal About Sources

The Russian material originates from a classified Soviet investigation conducted in the early 1980s under the Ministry of Defence. The files include official military stamps, unit identifiers and the names of senior officers stationed at Usovo.

Journalist George Knapp later highlighted the case on Mystery Wire, drawing attention to the original eyewitness statements rather than second-hand rumours. These accounts were collected at the time of the incident, not decades later, which supporters argue gives them greater credibility.

The American Malmstrom reports come from declassified testimony and interviews with retired airmen, some of whom spoke under oath before congressional panels.

Critics note that neither case provides physical proof like wreckage or radar recordings that are publicly available. Still, both rely on multiple trained witnesses whose careers depended on accurate reporting.

Taken together, the files suggest that in 1982 Russia came frighteningly close to launching missiles at New York under circumstances no one could explain. Whether the cause was alien intelligence, electronic interference or an undiscovered military test remains unresolved, but the night over Usovo stands as one of the most disturbing near-misses of the Cold War.