Senior Polish government figures have said a fire at a Starlink satellite ground station in the village of Wola Krobowska, in the Masovian Voivodeship, does not look like an accident. The blaze broke out on the evening of 23 September, according to Polish defence outlet Defence24, and no one was hurt.
Key facts
- The emergency call reached the fire service in Grójec at around 21:00 on 23 September and three fire crews were deployed, Defence24 reported.
- Preliminary findings pointed to damage to the site’s power distribution unit and a backup generator, the outlet said.
- Investigators are considering deliberate ignition of the electrical infrastructure, but an electrical fault has not been excluded, according to Defence24.
- The site holds around a dozen dome-shaped antennas roughly two metres in diameter that connect the Starlink satellite constellation to terrestrial telecommunications infrastructure, Defence24 reported.
- Defence24 said the facility is operated by Exatel, a Polish state-owned telecommunications company.
- Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the fire was unlikely to have been accidental, Ukrainian outlet Ukrainska Pravda reported, citing Polish news agency PAP.
Why it matters
Ground stations are the point where a satellite network meets ordinary fibre networks, and Defence24 argued that they, along with power systems, generators and fibre connections, remain physical infrastructure that is far easier to reach than satellites in orbit. On that reading, a state does not need to destroy spacecraft to disrupt satellite communications.
The outlet also wrote that if an adversary identifies these points correctly, a relatively limited act of sabotage can create disruption, force security services to react and test how resilient the wider system really is. Readers following where Starlink’s own terrestrial footprint is expanding can compare this with the ground stations being built across 14 African countries.
What Polish ministers said
Tusk said he “does not like to make definitions without 100% certainty as to what constitutes sabotage and what is an accident”, but added that it does not look good, according to Ukrainska Pravda, which cited PAP via European Pravda.
Interior and Administration Minister Marcin Kierwiński said it is difficult to imagine that there are coincidences in such matters and called for the police to be left to work calmly, the same report said. Digitalisation Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski said there were strong indications the fire was a deliberate attempt to disrupt the station’s operation.
The two source reports differ in emphasis on cause. Ukrainska Pravda reported that initial findings indicate the substation was probably set on fire deliberately, with a short circuit in the electrical system also being considered. Defence24 presented deliberate ignition and an electrical fault as parallel lines of inquiry, neither settled. Exatel’s link to the site has itself been contested since: Exatel has since disputed its role at the site in later reporting covered by Starlink News.
Why one gateway matters for Ukraine
Defence24 reported that the Wola Krobowska installation, together with a similar one near Kaunas in Lithuania, supports connectivity across a significant part of Central and Eastern Europe, including Ukraine. Starlink there is more than a civilian alternative, the outlet said: it carries traffic where conventional networks are damaged or unavailable and remains important for Ukrainian military and state communications.
That role has grown because Russian attacks have repeatedly damaged Ukrainian energy and telecommunications infrastructure, Defence24 said, with power cuts and physical destruction making stable terrestrial internet access harder in parts of the country. Starlink News has tracked recent damage to Ukrainian networks alongside the Polish investigation.
Crucially, Defence24 stressed that damage to one ground station would not cut Ukraine off from Starlink. The network is distributed and traffic can be redirected through other gateways. But the outlet said losing one regional node can reduce available capacity, increase latency and temporarily slow connections in parts of the network — and that in a war, slowing communications and stripping out redundancy can already cause civilian and military problems without any total blackout.
Background: hybrid attack warnings
Kierwiński said he has no doubt that Russia has taken its hybrid war against Europe to a new level, according to Ukrainska Pravda. The same report noted that Tusk had recently said Russia is planning hybrid attacks against countries supporting Ukraine, and that German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul warned of an escalation of Russia’s aggression against Europe.
Defence24 framed the incident as a test of policy as much as of hardware, noting that Poland has spent years discussing the protection of military installations, railways and energy infrastructure, and arguing that strategic internet infrastructure must now be treated the same way. If the fire proves to have been deliberate, the outlet wrote, the key question will not only be who set it, but whether someone was testing how easily one of the region’s important communications nodes could be disrupted.
Neither source reports any arrest, any formal attribution of the fire to a named actor, or any confirmed interruption to Starlink service in Poland or Ukraine.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which agencies are investigating the Wola Krobowska fire?
Interior and Administration Minister Marcin Kierwiński said the circumstances will be thoroughly investigated by the State Fire Service, the police and prosecutors, according to Polish news agency PAP as reported by Ukrainska Pravda. Defence24 reported that police prevention units and officers from the regional police headquarters also worked at the site.
Did the fire knock the Starlink ground station out of service?
Neither source says the station stopped operating. Defence24 reported that preliminary findings pointed to damage to the power distribution unit and a backup generator, while Digitalisation Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski said there were strong indications of a deliberate attempt to disrupt the station’s operation, according to Ukrainska Pravda.
What services besides internet access could be affected by damage to this kind of infrastructure?
Defence24 wrote that Exatel is part of Poland’s telecommunications infrastructure and carries internet traffic through the country, so disruption could affect more than ordinary internet access. It listed modern banking, payment systems, logistics, public administration and parts of critical infrastructure as dependent on permanent connectivity.
Has anyone been named as a suspect?
No suspect is named in either report. Kierwiński said it is difficult to imagine coincidences in such matters and that Russia has taken its hybrid war against Europe to a new level, while urging that the police be allowed to do their job, according to Ukrainska Pravda’s account of PAP.
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