Lithuania calls attempted arson at Starlink station near Vilnius a Russia-linked act of sabotage

As of 1:50 p.m. ET, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026

Lithuania is treating an attempted arson attack on a SpaceX Starlink base station on the outskirts of Vilnius early Sunday as a Russia-linked act of sabotage, the head of the government's National Crisis Management Centre said, according to Reuters.

Authorities are searching for suspects who tried to set fire to the station at about 2 a.m. local time Sunday (7 p.m. ET Saturday), Vilmantas Vitkauskas said. The fire was quickly put out, causing minor property damage and no disruption to operations, he said.

"We understand that this was not a routine arson attack but an act of sabotage," Vitkauskas told reporters in Vilnius.

Link to other attacks

Vitkauskas said the incident was linked to earlier arson attacks against Starlink stations in Bulgaria and Poland. "They are part of Russian attempts to disrupt Starlink and influence the success of Ukrainian operations," he said. "Ukraine is the target".

Bulgarian media reported that several Starlink antennas in that country were set on fire on Oct. 10, and a fire at a Starlink facility in Poland in September damaged its power system and backup generator, Reuters reported. Poland blamed Russia for the September fire, and four suspects were detained, according to the report.

Moscow has said such accusations are baseless and the result of "anti-Russian hysteria," Reuters reported. GROKsiNEWS.com has not independently verified the claimed link to Russia; no suspects had been publicly identified as of this article's time stamp.

Why it matters

Ukraine relies heavily on Starlink for battlefield communications and uses Starlink receivers in many of its drones, so attacks on the network's ground stations in NATO countries could affect Ukraine's war effort.