A fire broke out on Wednesday evening at a ground-based Starlink satellite communications station in central Poland, and Polish officials have called it a deliberate act of sabotage. Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski said the blaze hit the site’s power station and generator, and that the systems were operational again by the following day, according to a Reuters report carried by Global Banking & Finance Review.
The station is owned by Exatel, a Polish state telecoms firm, and supports SpaceX systems that deliver connectivity through Starlink terminals, TRT World reported. Investigators had not determined the exact cause at the time of those reports.
Why it matters
The ground segment is the part of a satellite network that sits on the earth: the dishes, fibre links, power supply and backup generators that connect orbiting satellites to the terrestrial internet. Satellites are effectively unreachable to an arsonist. A generator shed is not. That asymmetry is the whole point of the Polish allegation, and it is why a single fire at one building in central Poland is being discussed as a national security matter rather than a facilities incident.
The second reason it matters is what officials say the site feeds. Gawkowski said the disruption specifically targeted connectivity used by the Ukrainian army, TRT World reported, and ukrmedia reported that the facility provides satellite internet to a significant part of Central and Eastern Europe. On the officials’ own account, however, the service did not go dark, which makes this a story about an attempt rather than an outage.
Third, it shifts the category Starlink sits in. For three years the service has been discussed as a battlefield tool and, at times, as a political lever. A state now alleging that the physical plant behind it was set alight moves it into the same conversation as undersea cables, rail signalling and substations. Our earlier coverage of the fire at Poland’s Starlink station feeding Ukraine set out the first reports; the question of who controls Starlink access in the war is a separate dispute over the service layer, not the hardware.
What Polish officials said
The sabotage claim
Gawkowski framed the fire as intentional and aimed at taking the station out of service. Reuters quoted him saying the act was deliberately designed to disable the station, effectively cutting off the internet connection and disrupting internet access for various institutions, including the Ukrainian military. He said the fire engulfed the power station and the generator, and that the station is running.
Asked about attribution, he stopped short of naming Russia. Gawkowski told Reuters it was not established that Russia was responsible, but that “many signs suggest this aligns with Russia’s new doctrine of attack.”
Speaking to public broadcaster TVP Info, he said Poland is dealing with an element of the next phase of hybrid warfare, TRT World reported. He referenced remarks by Prime Minister Donald Tusk in making that point, per Reuters. Ukrmedia stressed in its own write-up that the sabotage claim is the deputy prime minister’s assessment, not the established cause of the incident.
A note on his name and title
The three reports do not agree on how to identify him. Reuters and ukrmedia call him Deputy Prime Minister; TRT World identifies him as Digital Affairs Minister, a combined portfolio. Ukrmedia renders the surname as both Hawkowski and Gavkovsky within a single report, which is characteristic of transliteration back from Cyrillic rather than a reference to a different official. This article uses the Reuters rendering throughout: Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski.
What the station carries
Ownership and traffic
- Operator: Exatel, a Polish state-owned telecoms firm, per TRT World.
- Traffic: internet traffic routed through Poland, including links reaching into Ukraine, per TRT World.
- Role in Starlink: supports SpaceX systems providing connectivity through Starlink terminals used across Ukraine’s front lines and beyond, per TRT World.
- Reach: satellite internet to a significant part of Central and Eastern Europe, with possible knock-on consequences for Ukraine, per ukrmedia.
No source we reviewed names the town, gives the site’s capacity, or states how many gateway stations Exatel operates, so the share of regional traffic that passes through this one building cannot be quantified from the reporting.
Who pays, and what the terminals are used for
Ukrmedia reported that Poland is one of the key state suppliers of Starlink terminals for Ukraine and covers the costs of maintaining them. That makes the Polish state a payer as well as a transit country, though no figure is attached to the spending in any of the three reports.
Polish authorities say the system is used not only for military purposes but also in the following civilian settings, according to the same report:
- hospitals and medical centres;
- the railways;
- public assistance centres;
- emergency communications in areas where terrestrial networks have been damaged.
Terminals themselves have also become a security concern inside Ukraine, as seen in a widening case in Lviv over Starlink terminals.
Background: Poland on sabotage alert since 2022
Reuters reported that Poland has been on heightened alert for acts of sabotage since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and that Russia has repeatedly denied any such action.
TRT World reported that Poland, a NATO and European Union member on the alliance’s eastern flank, has repeatedly accused Russia of sabotage since 2022, and has become the principal hub for Western military and humanitarian aid reaching Kiev. That hub status is the reason Polish infrastructure keeps appearing in these allegations: the aid corridor and the data corridor run through the same country.
TRT World also reported that Tusk warned earlier this month that Russia was preparing hybrid drone and missile strikes against Kyiv’s allies.
Airspace measures the same morning
Separately, Poland’s air force said it carried out preventive operations on Thursday morning tied to Russian missile strikes on Ukraine, TRT World reported. The army said the measures were preventive and aimed at securing and protecting airspace, particularly in areas adjacent to threatened regions, and that no violations were ultimately recorded. None of the reports links these operations to the fire.
Sourcing note
This account rests on three secondary reports: a Reuters wire story as carried by Global Banking & Finance Review, TRT World, and ukrmedia. The Reuters copy carries the bylines Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk and Pawel Florkiewicz. We were unable to locate a live Reuters URL for the original wire item at the time of writing and have linked the carrying outlet instead. We have likewise seen no primary statement on the incident published by the Polish government, the prosecutor’s office, Exatel or SpaceX; Gawkowski’s TVP Info remarks reach us second-hand through TRT World. Readers should treat the sabotage characterisation as a government assessment relayed by news agencies, not as a finding.
The numbers nobody has given
For a story with this much strategic weight, it is almost entirely free of figures. As of these reports there is no:
- time the fire started or was extinguished, beyond “late on Wednesday night”;
- outage duration, or confirmation that any customer lost service;
- damage estimate or repair cost;
- count of Starlink terminals Poland has supplied to Ukraine, or of what it spends maintaining them;
- named suspect, arrest, or formal attribution;
- cause of the fire, which TRT World said investigators were still working to establish.
We will update this report if Exatel, the Polish government or SpaceX publishes figures or a cause.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did the fire knock the Starlink station offline?
No. Reuters, in a report carried by Global Banking & Finance Review, quoted Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski as saying the systems were operational. TRT World also reported that the station remained operational despite the blaze. No source gives an outage duration, so it is not clear from the reporting whether service was interrupted at all, or for how long.
Has Russia been blamed for the fire?
Not formally. Gawkowski told Reuters it was not established that Russia was responsible, while adding that many signs suggest the incident aligns with what he called Russia’s new doctrine of attack. Reuters notes Russia has repeatedly denied carrying out such acts. No suspect has been named in any of the three source reports.
Who owns the station that caught fire?
TRT World reported that the station is owned by Exatel, a Polish state telecoms firm. TRT said it carries internet traffic through Poland, including links reaching into Ukraine, and supports SpaceX systems that provide connectivity through Starlink terminals. No statement from Exatel itself appears in the reports we reviewed.
Who supplies Ukraine’s Starlink terminals?
According to ukrmedia, Poland is one of the key state suppliers of Starlink terminals for Ukraine and covers the costs of maintaining them. Ukrmedia reported that Polish authorities say the system is used for military purposes as well as in hospitals, medical centres, on the railways, at public assistance centres and for emergency communications.
Who pays for Ukraine’s Starlink service, and how much does it cost?
Ukrmedia reported that Poland covers the maintenance costs of the Starlink terminals it supplies to Ukraine. Neither ukrmedia nor the Reuters and TRT World reports give a figure for that spending, a terminal count, or a monthly service price, so no cost total can be stated from this reporting.
Is he the Deputy Prime Minister or the Digital Affairs Minister?
Both titles appear because he holds a combined role in the reporting: Reuters and ukrmedia refer to Krzysztof Gawkowski as Deputy Prime Minister, while TRT World identifies him as Digital Affairs Minister. Ukrmedia also renders the surname as Hawkowski and Gavkovsky within a single report, which reflects transliteration from Ukrainian rather than a different person. This article uses the Reuters rendering, Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski.
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