Fire at Starlink ground station in Poland was deliberate, minister says

A fire broke out at a Starlink ground station in the village of Wola Krobowska, south of Warsaw, on Wednesday evening. Poland's digital affairs minister, Krzysztof Gawkowski, says the blaze was started deliberately — the facility provides internet services across the region, including Ukraine.

What happened

Firefighters were called to the facility at around 9 p.m. on Wednesday. Due to suspicions that the fire had been set deliberately, police and officers from the Internal Security Agency (ABW) were also dispatched to the scene. According to the minister, the facility is owned by Poland's state telecommunications operator Exatel and "provides internet transmission through Poland, and also to Ukraine". Other providers also use Exatel's infrastructure, including SpaceX, the owner of Starlink.

What officials say

"We're dealing with an arson attack that was intended to impact critical telecommunications infrastructure," Gawkowski told broadcaster TVN on Thursday morning. He said "the modus operandi in this case is clearly Russian" and described the incident as another element of the hybrid warfare Poland is facing. "The Russians want to paralyse critical infrastructure, cut off water, gas and electricity, paralyse the internet," he added. "All these processes have one goal: to incite panic and stir up emotions." In a separate interview with TVP, however, the minister admitted it is "impossible to say" for now whether Russia was behind the attack.

The spokesman for Poland's security services, Jacek Dobrzyński, told TVN that "at this stage it is still too early to talk about the causes or motives of this fire", but confirmed that "everything points to arson". Justice minister Waldemar Żurek told RMF that "this could be an act of sabotage, and we are taking that into account, so nothing can be ruled out here".

Why it matters

Ground stations are used by Starlink to connect its satellite constellation with terrestrial communications infrastructure. The Polish facility, alongside one in Lithuania, serves the entire Central and Eastern Europe region, including Ukraine, where Starlink terminals have been vital during Russia's war against the country.

Poland has been one of the primary targets of Russian sabotage operations in Europe. Earlier this month, a fire broke out at a drone plant belonging to WB Electronics, a supplier to the Ukrainian and Polish armed forces; Prime Minister Donald Tusk said at the time that there was "no doubt" the fire was deliberate and that Russia was likely behind it. In July, a Russian missile entered Polish airspace before landing in a field in eastern Poland. On the same Wednesday as the blaze, a Russian military helicopter briefly violated Polish airspace.