Lithuania Calls Attempted SpaceX Starlink Base Station Arson Russia-Linked Sabotage

Lithuania's National Crisis Management Centre is treating an attempted arson attack at a SpaceX Starlink base station on the outskirts of Vilnius on Sunday as Russia-linked sabotage aimed at undermining Ukraine's military capacity. Authorities are searching for suspects who tried to set fire to the facility at about 2 a.m. local time (2300 GMT on Saturday), though the blaze was quickly extinguished with only minor property damage and no disruption to operations. National Crisis Management Centre head Vilmantas Vitkauskas linked the incident to previous arson attacks on Starlink infrastructure in Europe, including a September fire in Poland that damaged a power system and backup generator—leading to four detentions—and an October 10 fire targeting several Starlink antennas in Bulgaria. Ukrainian forces rely heavily on Starlink terminals for battlefield communications and drone guidance systems to strike Russian targets and guide interceptor drones, even as Kyiv recently raised separate concerns over Starshield speed limits; Moscow states that accusations of Russian sabotage are baseless. "They are part of Russian attempts to disrupt Starlink and influence the success of Ukrainian operations. Ukraine is the target." — Vilmantas Vitkauskas, Head of Lithuania's National Crisis Management Centre.