Photo: EPA
A fire broke out at a Starlink ground station in Poland’s Mazovia region on Wednesday evening, September 23. Polish authorities are investigating possible arson, while officials have not established who may have been responsible.
The incident occurred at a ground station in Wola Krobowska, which provides satellite communications infrastructure for Central and Eastern Europe, including connectivity for Ukraine.
The property owner alerted emergency services after noticing a fire involving the station’s antennas. A power generator was also damaged. Firefighters extinguished the blaze, and police and security services, including Poland’s Internal Security Agency, were notified.
Arson investigation
Initial findings indicated that an electrical distribution unit connected to the antennas may have been deliberately set on fire, although investigators also considered an electrical short circuit as an alternative explanation.
By Thursday morning, investigators had reportedly found a bottle containing a flammable substance near the burned distribution box. An unnamed official told RMF FM that the evidence appeared consistent with an incendiary device. Police and security officials are investigating who may have been behind the incident.
Polish Digital Affairs Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski said there were strong indications that the fire was an intentional attempt to disrupt the station’s operation.
The station is operated by Exatel, a state-owned telecommunications company. Gawkowski said an outage at such infrastructure could disrupt internet access and affect services that depend on connectivity.
Russia link not established
Polish authorities have not publicly established that Russia was responsible for the fire. However, Gawkowski said the incident was consistent with the type of hybrid activity that Poland and other European countries have been warning about.
The suspected arson comes amid growing European concern over Russian sabotage and other hybrid operations targeting critical infrastructure. Recent incidents across Europe have prompted governments to strengthen security around telecommunications, energy and transport networks.
The Wola Krobowska station, together with a similar Starlink facility near Kaunas, Lithuania, helps provide internet access across a large part of Central and Eastern Europe. The station has around a dozen spherical antennas, each about two meters in diameter.
The incident also follows a Russian strike on telecommunications infrastructure in Kyiv on September 23, which damaged a data center and caused temporary disruptions for some internet providers and businesses.
