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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
In Poland, a fire broke out at a Starlink ground station that participates in providing satellite internet connectivity in Central and Eastern Europe, including Ukraine. The fire damaged antennas and a power generator, and Polish authorities are investigating whether someone could have deliberately set the equipment on fire.
This is reported by RMF24.
The fire occurred late in the evening 23 September in the village of Volya-Krobivska in the Masovian Voivodeship. The owner of the territory on which the satellite communication infrastructure is located noticed a blaze on the antennas and alerted emergency services.
Firefighters extinguished the blaze. In addition to the antennas, the station's power generator was damaged during the incident.
After the fire, Polish police began operating at the site. Law enforcement is determining exactly where the fire started and what could have caused it.
One of the possibilities is deliberate arson of the distribution equipment. At the same time, investigators are considering a technical cause, including a short circuit in the electrical system.
Polish security services are checking the possibility of arson at the Starlink station.
The fire was reported by the Internal Security Agency of Poland and the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Poland's Minister of Digital Affairs, Krysztof Hadkowski, stated that there are strong indications of a possible attempt to deliberately disrupt the operation of the station.
However, the final cause of the fire has not yet been established. The arson version remains under investigation, and investigators do not rule out a technical malfunction of the equipment.
There is currently no official confirmation that a particular organization or state is behind the incident.
Why the Polish Starlink station matters for Ukraine.
The facility in Volya-Krobivska is part of the ground infrastructure of Starlink, through which satellite internet connectivity is provided in the region.
Together with the analogous station near Kaunas in Lithuania, the Polish facility participates in providing connectivity for a significant area of Central and Eastern Europe, including Ukraine.
Damage to such equipment creates a risk of outages in the relevant infrastructure. At the same time, the fire report does not confirm that Starlink users in Ukraine have already lost Internet access because of it.
The Volya-Krobivska station has about ten antennas with a diameter of roughly two meters. The territory of the site is fenced with a metal fence.
Polish authorities continue to clarify the circumstances of the ignition and check possible causes of equipment damage.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "У Польщі загорілася станція Starlink, яка забезпечує зв’язок з Україною: підозрюють підпал". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: Expert.
