A fire broke out at a Starlink satellite ground station in Wola Krobowska (Poland), which provides connectivity to Ukraine among other areas, late on 23 September. Polish authorities strongly suspect deliberate arson, European Pravda reports, citing the Polish outlet RMF24 and statements by Polish officials.
Local services say the owner of the land plot reported that the antennas were on fire and the site’s power generator was damaged. Firefighters have extinguished the blaze. Besides arson, the police is considering a short circuit in the electric system as a possible reason for the incident.
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Poland’s Digital Affairs Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski said that there were strong indications the fire was a deliberate attempt to disrupt critical infrastructure.
“The station is operated by Exatel, a state-owned telecom operator that plays a key role in guaranteeing internet security and providing internet access, including for Ukraine,” Gawkowski said.
He added that such outages could cause problems for internet services and banking operations in the region.
According to the outlet, this ground station serves as a strategic hub providing satellite internet to a significant part of Central and Eastern Europe, including Ukraine, along with a similar facility near Kaunas in Lithuania.
As reported earlier, a Russian strike damaged a data centre housing core equipment for the internet provider UTELS in Kyiv on 23 September, likely leading to disruptions in network operation and access to communication services in the capital.
