Polish Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski stated that a fire at a Starlink satellite station in Wola Krobowska on Wednesday, September 23, 2026, was a deliberate act of sabotage. Gawkowski told broadcaster TVP Info that the blaze was intended to disable the facility and disrupt internet access for various institutions, including the Ukrainian military. The station is owned by the state telecommunications company Exatel and utilizes SpaceX systems to provide Starlink connectivity.
While Gawkowski said the incident fits into a "new Russian doctrine of attack," other Polish officials have expressed caution. Jacek Dobrzyński, spokesperson for the Minister-Coordinator of Special Services, said it was "too early to talk about sabotage" and noted that investigators are considering all scenarios, including an electrical short circuit. Prime Minister Donald Tusk also stated on Thursday, September 24, 2026, that he disliked labeling incidents without "100% certainty," though he remarked that the situation "looks bad."
The fire primarily affected a power station, a distribution board, and a generator at the site. Firefighters extinguished the blaze, and no injuries were reported. Despite the damage, the station remains operational. This incident follows a separate fire reported on Monday, September 21, 2026, at a WB Electronics facility in Skarżysko-Kamienna, which Tusk described as "deliberate arson." That fire caused an estimated 15 million zlotys ($4 million) in damage to a facility that supplies drones to Ukraine.
The scale of these events includes approximately $4 million in reported property damage at the Skarżysko-Kamienna site and the deployment of Polish fighter jets on Wednesday after a Russian military helicopter briefly entered Polish airspace. For the average resident in the region, these developments may not immediately change household bills, but they represent an escalation in security protocols at critical infrastructure and defense sites. Denmark’s intelligence service released a threat assessment on Thursday warning of a "low but growing risk" of limited military attacks against NATO countries, though it characterized such an event as "highly unlikely."
The reported sabotage also impacts Polish domestic policy, as Prime Minister Tusk has called for tighter cryptocurrency regulations. Tusk stated that Russia uses digital currency to finance sabotage operations, a claim that President Karol Nawrocki has rejected as unverified. Tusk urged lawmakers to approve the new regulations by Friday, September 25, 2026. The Kremlin has denied involvement in the fires and has previously stated that Moscow has no plans to attack NATO states. Police and prosecutors continue to investigate the causes of the fires at the Wola Krobowska and Lublin facilities.