Bulgaria has issued European arrest warrants for two 19-year-old German nationals accused of setting fire to Starlink antennas at a satellite ground station near Sofia, with the Sofia City Court approving the prosecution’s request on Monday, Oct. 19. Prosecutors say the attack took place on the night of Oct. 9 at the Plana Teleport facility, and German authorities say the two men’s current whereabouts are unknown, according to Kyiv Post.
Key facts
- The Sofia City Court granted a request from the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office, which wants the pair held in custody.
- Both men were charged in absentia on Oct. 14 and face three to 12 years in prison if convicted; the ruling can be appealed within three days.
- Under German privacy rules, German media have identified the suspects only by the initials S.I. and T.B.
- Prosecutors say eight antennas were set alight: three completely destroyed, two partially damaged and three others affected, Bulgarian state news agency BTA reported.
- Opposition lawmaker Ivaylo Mirchev of Democratic Bulgaria puts the damage higher, saying two masked men burned 11 of the site’s 17 antennas.
Why it matters
Kyiv Post frames the Sofia case as the latest in a series of suspected sabotage attacks on the satellite infrastructure Ukraine relies on to defend itself against Russian long-range strike drones. The report says authorities across Europe are warning that Russia could step up hybrid warfare and sabotage in the coming months, with ground stations and equipment stores among the targets.
For ordinary satellite internet customers, the attacks expose how terrestrial a space-based service really is. Teleports are where user traffic crosses between satellites and the fibre backbone, and a region’s capacity can rest on a handful of dishes behind a fence on a hillside — reachable by car, as prosecutors say these suspects were. Burning eight to 11 antennas at one site does not switch off a constellation, but it can cut the capacity routed through it, push traffic to more distant gateways and add latency or congestion for users in that footprint until the dishes are replaced. Repeat it across several countries and the practical question for subscribers stops being satellite coverage and becomes how much redundancy their provider has on the ground.
What prosecutors allege
According to the prosecution’s account relayed by Kyiv Post, the two men arrived from Serbia in a German-registered car, told border officers they were visiting as tourists, and later set the antennas on fire while wearing gloves and masks before returning across the same border crossing the same night. The attack itself only became public on Oct. 12, BTA reported, when Mirchev disclosed it on Facebook.
Defence objections rejected
Court-appointed lawyers for the two argued that investigators had identified the car but not the men inside it. “It may ultimately turn out that these are not the people who committed the criminal act,” said Zhanet Manasieva, a court-appointed lawyer for one of the defendants, as quoted by Kyiv Post. The court found reasonable grounds to suspect the pair were involved and rejected the objections; both lawyers said they would appeal.
An open discrepancy over where the suspects are
German news agency dpa reported that the suspects were arrested in Nürtingen, near Stuttgart, on Oct. 13 — a detail carried by the same Kyiv Post account that also states German authorities say their whereabouts are unknown. Neither europesays, which republishes that report, nor Kyiv Post reconciles the two statements, and neither the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office nor the German authorities have said publicly whether the men are in custody in Germany.
We are flagging this rather than smoothing it over, because the two versions cannot both stand: a European arrest warrant seeking the pair’s detention fits men at large, not men already arrested six days earlier. The possibilities include a short detention followed by release, a Bulgarian filing that predates the German action, or an error in one of the reports. We have found nothing that settles it, and will update this story if either account is clarified.
Political fallout in Sofia
Plamen Tonchev, head of Bulgaria’s State Agency for National Security (DANS), has told lawmakers he believes the fire was sabotage and warned that further attacks cannot be ruled out, dpa reported. Rumen Radev — Bulgaria’s president, although the Kyiv Post report describes him as prime minister — said on Oct. 14 that Bulgaria was working with partner services, and asked security chiefs not to disclose details. The outlet notes that he repeatedly rejects accusations of being pro-Russian.
After the court ruling, Mirchev demanded an explanation of what had been achieved and who bore responsibility. “Need we remind everyone that for three days the Interior Ministry and the security services kept silent and concealed the incident,” he wrote on Facebook, BTA reported.
Related incidents
The Bulgarian warrants are the third reported move against Starlink-linked ground infrastructure in Europe in under a month. A September fire damaged a Starlink ground station at Wola Krobowska, south of Warsaw, Polish broadcaster RMF reported. On Oct. 18, Lithuanian Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius said someone had tried overnight to carry out an attempted arson at a company storing Starlink equipment, but failed because security services had warned the company in advance. Reports have tied the cases to a wider pattern of sabotage aimed at Starlink sites, and Poland has publicly warned Elon Musk over the network.
Kyiv Post adds that the attacks land while Ukraine’s use of the network is strained by tensions with Washington: SpaceX, the US aerospace company behind Starlink, changed the parameters of Ukraine’s Starshield service overnight on Oct. 13-14, disrupting drone operations, and President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that Ukrainian units were still losing satellite connections, with equipment cutting out at 130-160 km/h (81-100 mph) along parts of the front.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Plana Teleport facility that was attacked?
Kyiv Post describes the Plana Teleport as a modern ground-based satellite communications station, located in the village of Plana some 30-40 kilometres (18-25 miles) southeast of Sofia. The site holds 17 antennas in total, according to the figure cited by opposition lawmaker Ivaylo Mirchev and reported by Bulgarian state news agency BTA.
How did the two suspects reportedly enter and leave Bulgaria?
Prosecutors say the pair crossed into Bulgaria from Serbia at the Kalotina border checkpoint at 5:37 p.m. local time on Oct. 9 in a German-registered car, telling border officers they were tourists. Kyiv Post reports they set the antennas alight at about 10:25 p.m. and crossed back into Serbia through the same checkpoint at around 11:55 p.m.
Who operates the Polish Starlink ground station damaged in September?
The facility at Wola Krobowska, south of Warsaw, is run by Polish state operator Exatel, according to Kyiv Post citing Polish broadcaster RMF. The report says it helps provide internet access across Central and Eastern Europe, including Ukraine, and that a Sept. 23 fire damaged antennas and a generator there.
What have Musk and Trump said about Ukraine’s Starlink speed limits?
SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk said the US military and President Donald Trump, not the company, set speed limits on the terminals, Kyiv Post reports. Trump denied that account, telling reporters it was not him and that he did not think it was Musk either.
Follow Starlink News on Google. Make us a preferred source to see more of our reporting in Google search results.
