A fire at a Starlink satellite station in central Poland was a deliberate "act of sabotage", a government minister has said. Polish Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski said the fire in the Masovian Voivodeship province was "deliberately designed to disable the station... disrupting internet access for various institutions, including the Ukrainian army". He told Polish public broadcaster TVP Info an investigation was ongoing but "many indications suggest" the attack fits into a "new Russian doctrine of attack".
The Kremlin has not commented. Meanwhile, Denmark's intelligence service issued a new threat assessment saying it expects Russia to escalate hybrid warfare in the coming months. It said an attack remained "highly unlikely" but warned of "a low but growing risk" that Russia could launch a limited military attack against Nato countries.
In recent weeks a number of European Nato members have said Russia may be preparing attacks to test their commitment to supporting Ukraine, which Moscow denies. Earlier this month, Germany blamed Russia for an attempted drone attack on Leipzig/Halle Airport, while France has ordered a plan to protect critical infrastructure and defence industry sites. Hybrid warfare or hybrid attacks are loose terms which tend to describe non-military methods designed to exert pressure and destabilise an adversary - for example cyberattacks, sabotage or misinformation.
Proxies are often used to carry out the attacks and Russia always denies involvement, despite growing evidence to the contrary. Europe targeted by spiralling campaign of sabotage - and Russia is the chief suspect The fire at the state-owned Polish satellite station broke out on Wednesday night in Wola Krobowska. The deputy prime minister said it transmits internet traffic through Poland to countries including Ukraine, and uses SpaceX systems that provide connectivity via Starlink terminals.
Asked about the incident at a news conference with Bulgaria's leader on Thursday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he disliked "labelling something as sabotage versus an accident without 100% certainty, but it looks bad". On Wednesday Poland also said a Russian military helicopter briefly violated its airspace, forcing it to scramble fighter jets. Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said Moscow does not plan to attack Nato states.
Earlier this month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said it was Europe speaking about preparing for war, adding: "If Europe attacks Russia, it will be a completely different war [from that in Ukraine], and it will be very short." Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and Moscow currently controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory, including the Crimea peninsula annexed in 2014. In Ukraine, Kharkiv and Kyiv experienced the worst of Russia's attacks overnight into Thursday. In Kharkiv, six people were killed and twelve others injured in a Russian strike on a farm in the village of Stara Hnylytsia, Ukraine's state emergency services said.
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