Poland says fire at Starlink ground station was sabotage aimed at Ukraine links
A fire at the Exatel ground station south of Warsaw used by Starlink was deliberate sabotage aimed at cutting internet access including for Ukraine's military, Poland's digital affairs minister says.
Poland suspects a fire at a Starlink ground station south of Warsaw was deliberate sabotage aimed at disrupting internet access, including for Ukraine’s military, officials said on Thursday.
The blaze broke out at about 9pm on 23 September at the Exatel ground station in Wola Krobowska, engulfing the station’s power station and backup generator, according to Deputy Prime Minister and Digital Affairs Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski, who described the facility as state-owned telecommunications infrastructure used by SpaceX’s Starlink (Reuters).
Gawkowski said the fire was a deliberate act designed to disable the station and cut internet access for various institutions, including Ukraine’s armed forces, which rely heavily on Starlink connections (The Jerusalem Post). He said responsibility had not been established, but that “many signs suggest this aligns with Russia’s new doctrine of attack” and called it an element of hybrid warfare; in separate remarks he said the modus operandi “is clearly Russian” (TRT World).
Prime Minister Donald Tusk struck a more cautious note, saying he disliked labelling an incident as sabotage rather than an accident without certainty, while acknowledging it “looks bad” (Notes from Poland). Investigators have not ruled out an electrical fault, according to TVP World.
The station is now operating normally. Ukraine has not publicly said whether its services were disrupted. Russia has repeatedly denied involvement in sabotage incidents in Poland since 2022.
Sources
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