Polish investigators are treating a fire at a Starlink satellite internet ground station in the village of Wola Krobowska, less than 50 kilometres (31 miles) from Warsaw, as possible arson. The blaze broke out on the evening of 23 September at a site operated by Exatel, Poland’s state-owned telecommunications company, and senior ministers have publicly linked it to Russian hybrid warfare while stressing that nothing has been proven.
Key facts
- The fire damaged the station’s power supply and a generator, and destroyed the distribution panel connected to its antennas, according to Meduza.
- Polish security services believe it was arson and a bottle of flammable liquid resembling a “Molotov cocktail” was found near the panel, RMF24 reported via Meduza.
- Investigators are also weighing a short circuit in the electrical system as a possible cause, UNITED24 Media reports.
- The station stayed operational, Deputy Prime Minister and Digital Affairs Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski said, and no widespread Starlink outage has been confirmed.
- The site is in Mazowieckie province, which Meduza renders as the Masovian Voivodeship; Drive Tesla Canada places it south of Warsaw.
Why it matters
Gawkowski described the facility as an internet hub that also underpins internet security in Ukraine, according to The Insider, which cited the Polish outlet Onet on the sabotage suspicion. Drive Tesla Canada says the station helps carry traffic through Poland to other countries, including Ukraine, where Starlink remains an important communications link for the military. A single burned distribution panel therefore sits on a path used by wartime military communications.
What ministers have said
“The fire engulfed the power station and the generator; it is clear that this act of sabotage was deliberately designed to disable the station — effectively cutting off the internet connection… and disrupting internet access for various institutions, including the Ukrainian military,” Reuters quoted Gawkowski as saying.
He added that the attempt failed, that there is no direct evidence tying Russia to the fire, and that many signs fit what he called Russia’s new doctrine of attack. Gawkowski also said the incident is an element of hybrid warfare, echoing a recent remark by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, The Insider reports.
Deputy Defence Minister Cezary Tomczyk said that wherever suspicious fires occur, the default assumption must be possible sabotage or subversion, and accused Russia of using simple methods such as arson to provoke social instability across Europe, Meduza reports. Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński said the state fire service, the police and the prosecutor’s office would all investigate, adding that “it’s hard to imagine that everything happens by chance in cases like this.”
Where the accounts differ
The sources agree on the location, date and damage, but not on how firm the sabotage conclusion is. Meduza says security services believe the fire was arson and cites the flammable-liquid bottle. UNITED24 Media, citing RMF, says preliminary findings indicate unidentified individuals may have deliberately set fire to an electrical distribution panel, while investigators still consider an electrical fault. Drive Tesla Canada states plainly that no Russian involvement has been established. Gawkowski himself said sabotage cannot be ruled out, per Meduza.
Poland’s stake in Ukraine’s Starlink service
Poland spends around $50 million a year to finance half of the roughly 42,000 Starlink terminals used in Ukraine, UNITED24 Media reports, which is why Warsaw’s ministers speak about the network in security terms rather than consumer ones. That dependence became a public dispute after Poland was removed from Starlink’s European roaming zone, prompting Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski to criticise Starlink owner Elon Musk over the potential effect on satellite communications for Ukraine’s military, the same outlet says. Readers following political fights over how Ukraine may use the network and a criminal case in Lviv involving Starlink terminals will recognise the pattern of a commercial service entangled in state decisions.
Recent incidents in Poland
The fire lands in a run of incidents cited by The Insider. On 22 September, Polish police reported an attempted act of sabotage against railway infrastructure near the village of Jedlanka in Łuków County, where two freight trains travelling in opposite directions struck concrete blocks placed on the tracks; neither derailed and nobody was hurt. In late August, a factory owned by the Polish defence company WB Electronics, which works closely with Ukraine and makes combat drones, caught fire. In June, the independent outlet Vot Tak published an investigation saying Russian recruiters were actively looking for people to carry out sabotage operations in Poland.
What is still unknown
No suspects have been named and the cause has not been formally determined. Drive Tesla Canada notes that the extent of any damage to the station’s equipment is unclear, and that SpaceX has other ground stations in Europe but has not said whether traffic had to be rerouted after the fire. For the wider context of internet disruption around the war, see our earlier report on the Kyiv internet cuts and the Polish hub fire.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a Starlink ground station actually do?
Drive Tesla Canada describes ground stations as the link between SpaceX’s satellites and the internet on Earth: they send data up to satellites passing overhead and receive data back, so a user’s Starlink dish can reach websites and services. The outlet says the Polish station helps carry that traffic toward Ukraine, which is why officials were concerned about the fire.
Which other station serves the same region?
According to RMF, cited by UNITED24 Media, the Wola Krobowska facility works together with a similar ground station near Kaunas, Lithuania, and the pair provide internet access to a significant part of Central and Eastern Europe. Neither the sources nor SpaceX have said how traffic is divided between them.
Was anyone hurt in the fire?
No injuries were reported, according to Drive Tesla Canada. UNITED24 Media, citing RMF, says the owner of the property where the Starlink infrastructure sits alerted emergency services after antennas caught fire and a power generator was damaged, and that firefighters extinguished the blaze.
What is the EU’s proposed "counter-hybrid playbook"?
UNITED24 Media reports that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed a NATO-style mechanism on 16 September to help EU countries coordinate their response to sabotage, drone incursions and other non-military aggression. Under the plan, any member state targeted in that way could trigger emergency consultations with the other members to coordinate response, deterrence and mitigation.
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