Arab News | Germany detains two Turkish citizens over Polish Starlink blaze

WARSAW: Germany detained two Turkish citizens suspected of setting fire to a Polish Starlink station, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Monday, calling the blaze last month an act of “hybrid warfare.”

“On behalf of Polish services, German police detained two Turkish citizens suspected of setting fire to a Starlink station in Masovia (central Poland),” Tusk wrote on X, adding “this is another act of hybrid warfare.”

He added the two suspects would “answer before the Polish justice system.”

Polish interior minister Marcin Kierwinski confirmed the arrests, adding they were made possible due to collaboration between the Polish police, Poland’s internal security agency (ABW) and German services.

He added the charge was “sabotage, espionage on behalf of a foreign intelligence service.”

The station, owned by state-owned telecommunications company Exatel, is used, among other things, to transmit Internet traffic through Poland, including to Ukraine, according to the digital affairs minister, Krzysztof Gawkowski.

It is also used by SpaceX systems that provide connectivity via Starlink terminals.

The attack happened overnight in late September, and the station was still operational even after the fire.

The following day, digital affairs minister Gawkowski told public broadcaster TVP Info that “this act of sabotage was deliberately designed to disable the station … disrupting Internet access for various institutions, including the Ukrainian army.”

Poland, a NATO and EU member state along the alliance’s eastern flank, has accused Russia of “sabotage” on several occasions since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Poland has become the main hub for transporting Western military and humanitarian support to Kyiv.

Last month, Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned that Russia’s plans in the war against Ukraine include “hybrid” drone and missile strikes against Kyiv’s allies.