Poland Voices ‘Reasonable Suspicion’ of Russian Role in Starlink Fire

Polish authorities suggest Russian intelligence is to blame for a recent fire at a Starlink ground station in central Poland.The fire damaged the power plant and generator in Wola Krobowska, located in the Masovian Voivodeship about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Warsaw, causing the station to lose its internet connection and disrupting access for several organizations, including the Ukrainian military.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official.Przemysław Nowak, a spokesman for the Polish National Prosecutor’s Office, said the police have “reasonable suspicion” that Russian intelligence is behind the fire, according to Polish outlet TVP World on Friday.“There is... reasonable suspicion that the perpetrators acted on the orders of Russian special services and on behalf of a foreign intelligence service against the Republic of Poland,” Nowak said.“The aim of their actions was to disrupt Starlink internet traffic and communications in Poland and other countries of Central and Eastern Europe,” he added.While Starlink satellites relay data to one another, traffic must ultimately be routed through ground stations to connect to terrestrial networks and data centers.Krzysztof Gawkowski, Poland’s deputy prime minister and digital affairs minister, also voiced similar suspicions in his remarks on Thursday.The incident came amid warnings from top Polish officials of intensifying Russian hybrid attacks, including sabotage, against Poland and NATO as a whole, with Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski cautioning that Moscow is planning “something big” in 2026 in a recent remark. Other Topics of Interest Fire at Polish Starlink Hub Sparks Sabotage Investigation The incident temporarily disrupted connectivity used across the region, including services supporting Ukraine, and has raised fresh concerns about potential attacks on critical communications infrastructure. Russia has not claimed responsibility for the incident, and the investigation remains open with no arrests made after the station resumed operations.Ukraine’s edge over RussiaUkraine has gained a slight edge in frontline communications over Russia after Kyiv worked with SpaceX to introduce a verification system in February.The verification system has disabled terminals used by Russian troops, and Moscow has since looked for alternatives while disrupting Ukrainian access to Starlink.One way for Moscow to remedy the situation is by hiring Ukrainians to illegally register terminals for Russian troops.Earlier this week, Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) said it detained two men in Lviv for attempting to register more than 50 Starlink accounts on behalf of Russian intelligence agencies. In July, the SBU said it arrested two other men in Kyiv who registered 76 terminals for Russia, then announced a day later that it had arrested another man in central Ukraine’s Dnipro for activating over 1,000 Starlink terminals for Russia.Another is to target nodes that support the system.On Saturday morning, Russia’s defense ministry claimed to have hit a data center in Kyiv that “provided mobile internet service and support for the Starlink satellite communications system for the Ukrainian Armed Forces.”Russia has also tried to remedy the issue by introducing alternatives, including its domestically deployed Rassvet satellites.The Rassvet has had some success – namely, a twice-daily communication window over Ukraine by August – but is marred by deployment hurdles, with the limited number of satellites in orbit made worse by failed launches that sent their already limited numbers plummeting back to Earth. Kyiv Post is Ukraine’s first and oldest English news organization, reporting since 1995. Its international reach – 97% of readers are outside of Ukraine – make it truly Ukraine’s global voice.