Vova Startsev

Vova Startsev is a Russian individual known primarily as a child witness in the 1989 Voronezh UFO incident. On September 27, 1989, in a public park in Voronezh, USSR, Startsev and other schoolchildren, including Vasya Surin, Julia Sholokhova, Lena Sarokina, and Alyosha Nikonov, reported seeing a UFO land during a soccer game. They described tall, three-eyed aliens in silver suits emerging, one of whom made a boy's pistol vanish and reappear. Startsev noted a 'Zh' symbol on the craft, matching prior UFO reports documented by Jacques Vallee. The event drew adult witnesses, TASS coverage, and investigations by Soviet scientists like Genrikh Silanov, who found ground depressions but no conclusive evidence. Skeptics questioned child reliability amid no chemical anomalies. No birth/death years or further UAP research roles are documented; his testimony remains a key, controversial element of the case.