A fire that engulfed a Starlink satellite station near Wola Krobowska in central Poland's Masovian Voivodeship was an act of sabotage deliberately designed to disable the facility, according to Polish Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski. The blaze destroyed the station's power system and backup generator.
"It is clear that this act of sabotage was deliberately designed to disable the station — effectively cutting off the internet connection … and disrupting internet access for various institutions, including the Ukrainian military," Gawkowski told Polish public broadcaster TVP Info.
He said investigators had not yet established who was responsible, but that "many signs suggest this aligns with Russia's new doctrine of attack." The Kremlin has not commented on the fire. The station is now operating normally, Gawkowski said, adding: "While everything is operational today, we must recognise, as Prime Minister (Donald) Tusk recently noted, that this is an element of hybrid warfare."
In a separate threat assessment released this week, Denmark's Defence Intelligence Service said Russia would carry out more frequent attacks against the West and NATO "with greater consequences for the countries targeted than in the past." It assessed "a low but growing risk" that Russia could launch a limited military attack against one or more NATO countries bordering Russia.
"A limited military attack would be a desperate move on Russia's part and, like the intensified hybrid attacks, could potentially take place in the coming months," the assessment said. Intelligence chief Thomas Ahrenkiel said Russia might use isolated strikes with long-range weapons such as drones or missiles on infrastructure supporting Ukraine, stage false-flag operations using Ukrainian-made drones, or deploy small numbers of troops into a NATO border area under the pretext of protecting Russian minorities. "The aim is not to take over the country, but to divide NATO," he said.
Denmark's Resilience Agency separately said Russia would likely attempt destructive cyber attacks against Denmark and raised its threat level. The warnings come after a Russian frigate fired flares at a Danish military helicopter in international waters last week, with one narrowly missing the aircraft, according to the Danish military.
Poland has been on heightened alert for acts of sabotage since Russia's full-scale invasion of neighbouring Ukraine in 2022, and Moscow has repeatedly denied involvement in such incidents. Ukraine's military relies on tens of thousands of Starlink terminals for battlefield communications and some drone operations; Poland has previously said it pays for Ukraine's Starlink subscription. The incident follows recent warnings from other European NATO members: Germany has blamed Russia for an attempted drone attack on Leipzig/Halle Airport, and France has ordered a plan to protect critical infrastructure and defence industry sites. Hybrid warfare is a loose term covering non-military methods such as cyberattacks, sabotage and disinformation used to pressure and destabilise adversaries, often through proxies.