Ivan Tretyak

Ivan Moiseyevich Tretyak was a Soviet Army General and commander in chief of the PVO (Soviet Air Defense Forces). In declassified CIA interviews from the 1980s, Tretyak discussed Soviet encounters with unidentified flying objects, noting that UFOs encountered by Soviet pilots had been photographed and produced optical and thermal signals on interceptor target screens. He theorized that UFOs possessed 'stealthlike' characteristics that prevented detection on standard air defense radar systems, operating outside the narrow frequency bands used by Soviet air defense forces. Tretyak expressed skepticism about extraterrestrial origins while acknowledging the phenomenon's reality and the need for expanded radar capabilities to study these objects.