Document · 5 October 1982
Soviet military witness statements on the Usovo lights, 4–5 October 1982 (English translation released by KLAS-TV, 2026)
English translations of witness statements written by Soviet officers and soldiers after the lights seen near the Strategic Rocket Forces sites at Usovo and Belokorovichi, Zhytomyr region, on 4 October 1982. Each statement carries a military-unit stamp. George Knapp says he obtained them in Russia in the early 1990s. He gave copies to the House Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets in 2025, and KLAS-TV published them in January 2026.
They are typed depositions only. There is no technical appraisal of the control-panel event and no conclusion from the investigating commission. Their provenance rests on Knapp, and no Russian or Ukrainian archive has certified them. They describe moving lights, not a structured craft over the base. They do not say that launch codes were entered or that the missiles prepared to launch.
Sources: KLAS-TV translation of the Usovo statements, released January 2026
Facts and claims
- documented Signed statements dated 4–5 October 1982 by about ten servicemen of military unit 52035 and neighbouring units: captains, majors, lieutenant colonels and a soldier. They describe golden, twinkling clusters of lights above Usovo between about 19:10 and 21:10 on 4 October 1982, seen from buses and cars on the roads around Belokorovichi. The lights formed ellipses, lines and garlands, flashed, released small luminous balls and "went out slowly as if melted away". Several officers first took them for a helicopter or for sunlight reflected off one. Source: doc-usovo-1982-witness-statements.pdf
- documented Major M. D. Kataman, senior assistant to the communications service commander, reported that at 21:37 on 4 October he observed spontaneous illumination of all displays and indicators on the information board, also recorded on tape. Testing according to the technical map showed no defects. He supposed a powerful impulse on the apparatus's power system could cause it, noted no abnormal effects in other communication means, and added that experience showed this apparatus was weak in its power system. Source: doc-usovo-1982-witness-statements.pdf
Connected files
Incidents
People
- George Knapp (published by)
Videos
- Byelokorovichi 1982: George Knapp's 1994 field report with Lt. Col. Vladimir Platunov (discussed in)
Mentioned in this file
- Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets (Organization)
More documents
- Platov & Sokolov, "Study of unidentified flying objects in the USSR", Vestnik of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2000
- Press conference transcript: Japanese Defense Minister Taro Kono (September 15, 2020)
- CEFAE annual report 2018 (Argentine Air Force), including the resolution of the Bariloche case
- Japanese Cabinet written answer on unidentified flying objects (House of Councillors, 18 December 2007)
- CIA/FBIS Foreign Press Note FB PN 90-123: "USSR: UFO sightings no. 2 — General Maltsev comments" (1990)
- RNZAF UFO file AIR 1080/6/897 Vol. 1: investigation of the December 1978 east-coast South Island sightings (Kaikōura)
Links
- KLAS-TV 8 News Now — the translated statements (PDF)
- Critique: Gene Sticco, "Knapp's 'Russian UFO files' are mostly old news" (9 Feb 2026)