Polish Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski has described the fire at a Starlink ground station in central Poland as a deliberate act of sabotage intended to disable the facility, marking a significant escalation from the authorities’ initial assessment that deliberate interference was one of several possibilities being investigated.
The fire broke out on the evening of 23 September at the satellite communications facility in Wola Krobowska, near Grójec in the Mazowieckie region.
Gawkowski, who also serves as Poland’s digital affairs minister, said the blaze affected the station’s power infrastructure and backup generator.
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“The fire engulfed the power station and the generator; it is clear that this act of sabotage was deliberately designed to disable the station,” he said, according to Reuters.
He said the apparent objective was to interrupt internet connectivity and disrupt access for institutions relying on the network, “including the Ukrainian military”.
The station is now operational again, Gawkowski said. Ukraine has not publicly reported whether the incident caused any interruption to military communications.
Assessment hardened after initial investigation
The new wording goes further than the government’s initial public response.
Earlier on Thursday, Gawkowski said there were “many indications” that the fire had been a deliberate attempt to disrupt a strategically important communications hub and described it as potentially another phase of hybrid warfare.
At that stage, officials were still publicly discussing both technical failure and deliberate action as possible causes.
Deputy Interior Minister Maciej Duszczyk said police and Internal Security Agency officers had been sent to the site immediately after firefighters reported the incident and that investigators were examining whether the fire resulted from an electrical fault or sabotage.
The Polish Radio account of the initial investigation said the ABW, Poland’s domestic intelligence agency, was involved in the inquiry.
By later on Thursday, however, Gawkowski was speaking in much firmer terms, calling the incident an “act of sabotage” and saying it had deliberately targeted the station’s ability to operate.
Power infrastructure targeted
The fire was reported shortly after 9pm on Wednesday.
Michał Maroszek, spokesman for the State Fire Service in Grójec, said firefighters found the casing of a power-supply installation on fire when they arrived.
Three fire crews attended, extinguished the blaze and secured the site. No injuries were reported.
The fire damaged electricity infrastructure associated with the facility, including a distribution unit and generator.
Police subsequently secured the site, with ABW officers also taking part in the investigation.
The installation is operated by Exatel, Poland’s state-owned telecommunications operator, according to Gawkowski.
He described the facility as part of infrastructure providing internet connectivity through Poland and onwards to Ukraine.
Starlink crucial to Ukraine
Starlink satellite communications have become particularly important to Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Ukraine uses tens of thousands of Starlink terminals for military communications as well as civilian and public-sector connectivity.
The system has been used for battlefield communications and some drone operations, while Poland has financed and maintained a large number of terminals used in Ukraine.
The Wola Krobowska installation is part of the ground infrastructure supporting satellite connectivity in Central and Eastern Europe.
That role makes disruption of such facilities potentially more significant than an ordinary telecommunications outage, particularly given Ukraine’s reliance on Starlink.
Gawkowski said an effective attack on installations of this type could affect not only military communications but wider services dependent on internet infrastructure.
No public attribution to Russia
Gawkowski linked the incident to the broader threat of hybrid operations against Poland, but he stopped short of saying investigators had established Russian responsibility.
He said there were signs that the attack was consistent with what he described as Russia’s evolving methods of hostile activity.
“It won’t be tanks or airplanes coming in here,” Gawkowski said in an earlier interview with TVP Info, arguing that modern hostile operations could instead seek to cut internet, electricity, water or gas supplies.
He later said the fire appeared consistent with a “new Russian doctrine of attack”, while explicitly acknowledging that it had not been established that Russia was responsible.
Polish security officials have repeatedly warned in recent years about sabotage, arson, cyberattacks and intelligence operations they say have been organised or sponsored by Russia.
Moscow has denied involvement in acts of sabotage in European countries.
The distinction remains important in the Wola Krobowska case.
As of Friday morning, no public statement located from the ABW or prosecutors had identified a suspect, foreign intelligence service or state sponsor responsible for the fire.
Gawkowski’s description therefore represents the government’s increasingly firm assessment that the incident was deliberate, rather than a publicly documented attribution of responsibility to Russia.
Station back online
Despite the damage, Gawkowski said the facility had returned to normal operation.
No critical interruption of internet connectivity was reported publicly following the fire.
“Everything is operational today,” he said, while arguing that the incident should nonetheless be understood in the broader context of threats to critical infrastructure.
The investigation now has two separate questions to resolve: exactly how the fire was started and who, if anyone, ordered or carried out the apparent sabotage.
Until investigators publish those findings, the deliberate nature of the incident is being asserted at ministerial level, while responsibility for it remains publicly unproven.
