Polish prosecutors have opened an investigation into possible sabotage after a fire damaged power infrastructure at a Starlink ground station in Wola Krobowska, south-west of Warsaw, which supports internet connectivity across Central and Eastern Europe, including Ukraine.
The fire broke out shortly after 9pm on Wednesday, 23 September, at the facility in the Grójec district of Mazowieckie province.
Three fire crews were sent to the site, where firefighters found the casing of an electrical supply box burning. The fire was extinguished and the site secured. No injuries were reported.
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By Thursday afternoon, the Grójec District Prosecutor’s Office had opened an investigation in which possible sabotage is being examined.
Aneta Góźdź, spokeswoman for the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Radom, said investigators were not excluding deliberate action and would secure surveillance footage to establish what had happened and identify anyone potentially involved.
No perpetrator, motive or foreign involvement has been established.
Tusk: ‘It looks bad’
Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the incident was being considered in the wider context of repeated suspicious incidents affecting infrastructure in Poland, but cautioned against declaring it sabotage before investigators had completed their work.
“I don’t like defining too early what is sabotage, but it looks bad,” Tusk said on Thursday.
He noted that the site was important to Poland’s effort, together with SpaceX, to maintain communications supporting Ukraine.
Deputy Prime Minister and Digital Affairs Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski went further, saying that many indications suggested the fire had been a deliberate attempt to disrupt the facility.
He said the incident could represent another element of hybrid warfare and described the installation as an important internet hub also supporting connectivity in Ukraine.
Gawkowski’s comments are an assessment by the minister rather than a finding by investigators.
Polish security officials have explicitly warned against drawing premature conclusions.
Jacek Dobrzyński, spokesman for the minister coordinating Poland’s intelligence services, said Internal Security Agency officers were examining the scene but that several possible explanations remained under consideration.
Those included deliberate arson and an electrical short circuit.
“Not all arsons are acts of sabotage,” Dobrzyński said, warning against speculation while the investigation continued.
Flammable liquid reportedly found
RMF FM reported, citing an unidentified official source, that investigators found a bottle containing flammable material near the damaged electrical distribution box.
The source told the broadcaster that the evidence resembled the use of a Molotov cocktail and strengthened suspicions that the fire had been deliberately started.
That information had not been formally confirmed by prosecutors or the Internal Security Agency by Thursday afternoon.
Onet separately reported, citing unnamed sources, that investigators were examining whether electrical equipment had been doused with flammable liquid or struck with a bottle containing such a substance.
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The same report said no one had been detained at that stage.
Station remained operational
Despite the damage, officials said the wider system remained operational.
Minister coordinating the special services Tomasz Siemoniak said the system was functioning stably, while Gawkowski said the station’s systems had been restored to full operation.
The fire affected the facility’s power equipment, including an electrical distribution box and generator, rather than destroying the Starlink antenna network itself.
A Polish government explainer published after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine describes the Wola Krobowska ground station, together with a facility near Kaunas in Lithuania, as part of the infrastructure serving Starlink users across Central Europe.
It also notes that satellites operating over Ukraine can connect through the Polish ground station.
Starlink has played an important communications role in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion, including for civilian authorities and the Ukrainian military.
EXATEL clarifies its role
Initial reports and comments by Gawkowski described state-controlled telecommunications company EXATEL as the operator of the site.
The company subsequently issued a more precise explanation of its role.
EXATEL said it subleases land at Wola Krobowska and provides data-transmission services there, but does not own the ground-based or satellite infrastructure at the location.
The company also said none of its own infrastructure had been destroyed and that the incident had no effect on the ongoing operation or security of its network.
EXATEL is wholly owned by the Polish state and provides telecommunications, data-transmission, cybersecurity and satellite-communications services.
Security agencies involved
The Internal Security Agency (ABW) is involved in assessing the incident, alongside police.
The Central Bureau of Police Investigation (CBŚP) and Central Bureau for Combating Cybercrime (CBZC) have also been assisting, according to reports from the scene and prosecutors.
Their involvement reflects the potential national-security significance of the facility, although it does not itself establish that sabotage occurred.
Polish authorities have become increasingly alert to suspected attacks on infrastructure since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Poland and other European governments have accused Russia of sponsoring or directing some previous sabotage and hybrid operations in Europe. Moscow has denied involvement in such activities.
No Polish authority has publicly established that Russia was responsible for the Wola Krobowska fire.
Investigation now centres on cause and motive
The key question for investigators is now whether the blaze resulted from equipment failure or was deliberately started.
If deliberate action is confirmed, authorities would then have to establish who was responsible and why the installation was targeted before determining whether the incident constituted sabotage or a broader hybrid operation.
For now, the fire has damaged equipment but has not knocked the Starlink facility out of operation.
The prosecutor’s decision to investigate a possible sabotage scenario, together with the strategic role of the communications infrastructure, means the incident is being treated as substantially more than an ordinary electrical fire.
