A Starlink ground station was deliberately set on fire in Poland. Now the investigation is reaching across the German border, and Polish officials are accusing Russian intelligence of ordering the attack.
The case widened Tuesday as reports emerged of additional detentions beyond the two Turkish men whose arrests Poland announced Monday. The target was infrastructure supporting satellite internet, including service used in Ukraine.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk posted this video statement Tuesday, saying the suspected arsonists had been detained and would face a Polish court:
Poland’s Interior Ministry says the case concerns the September 23 fire at Starlink infrastructure in Wola Krobowska. Its account identifies the two men detained in Germany as Turkish citizens suspected of carrying out the sabotage.
Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński said Polish police, the Internal Security Agency and prosecutors assembled the evidence behind the arrests. European arrest warrants issued the previous week provided the basis for taking the suspects into custody.
Tomasz Siemoniak, the minister overseeing Poland’s intelligence services, directly accused Russian services of responsibility. He also said those services increasingly recruit people connected to the criminal world to carry out such operations.
The ministry described a coordinated investigation involving Polish agencies and European partners, with Poland supplying the evidence. Those are the authorities’ allegations; the arrests do not establish the suspects’ guilt.
There is an obvious security lesson here: a satellite network still has vulnerable equipment on the ground. Protecting the connection means protecting the physical facilities behind it.
In this briefing clip released Monday, Kierwiński describes the police and intelligence cooperation that led to the first two arrests in Germany:
Minister @MKierwinski: Dzięki intensywnej pracy@PolskaPolicja, @CBSPolicji i @ABW_GOV_PL, we współpracy z prokuraturą, na terenie Niemiec zatrzymano dwóch obywateli Turcji, którzy odpowiadają za podpalenie stacji Starlink w Woli Krobowskiej.
pic.twitter.com/3uFX9zqucV
— MSWiA(@MSWiA_GOV_PL) October 12, 2026
TVP World reported Tuesday that Germany’s Federal Criminal Police confirmed coordinating information between German and Polish authorities in connection with three detentions. Private broadcaster RMF FM, citing anonymous sources, reported a fourth person had been detained.
RMF’s account included a woman held in Berlin who may have acted as a driver. Her nationality was not disclosed, and Polish prosecutors would assess her involvement before deciding whether to seek her extradition.
The German police account covered three detentions. The possible fourth arrest was reported through unnamed sources, with no further details released about that person or what role investigators believe they played.
The report also noted Moscow’s rejection of European accusations of Russian sabotage as baseless. Poland’s accusation will have to be supported by the evidence in this case.
Notes from Poland reported that the ground station is owned by the Polish state telecommunications operator Exatel and serves the region, including Ukraine. The station’s role gives the investigation significance beyond the damage at a single site.
At Monday’s briefing, national police commander Marek Boroń said investigators had documented the two Turkish suspects’ movements in Poland and had recordings, fingerprints and DNA. He said one had resident status in Germany and the other did not.
Siemoniak also raised the possibility that other people were involved, while declining to disclose more information. Tuesday’s reports of additional detentions therefore concern a question investigators had already identified.
Those records could help establish who was physically at the site. Investigators still have to determine each suspect’s role and build the case connecting the people who carried out the attack to anyone who directed them.
Tuesday’s latest reported development is a possible fourth detention, which TVP World attributes to RMF FM:
If investigators can prove a foreign intelligence service directed this attack, the case will show how a communications system can be targeted through ordinary infrastructure far from the front lines.
For now, the arrests are a concrete step. The harder task is establishing who gave the orders, who carried them out and whether anyone else is still in a position to strike.
This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.
The post Starlink Sabotage Probe Widens as Poland Points to Russian Intelligence appeared first on 100PercentFedUp.com.
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[H/T 100PercentFedUp]
