Lithuania: Attempted arson at Starlink station is Russian sabotage aimed at weakening Ukrainian military capabilities

Vilmantas Vitkauskas, head of Lithuania's National Crisis Management Center, said on the 18th that at about 2 a.m. on the 18th (7 a.m. Beijing time), an attempted arson occurred at a SpaceX Starlink station on the outskirts of the capital Vilnius, and the suspects are still being pursued. The fire was quickly extinguished, causing only minor property damage, and operations were not affected. Vitkauskas said this was not an ordinary arson but a sabotage operation. He linked this incident to recent arson cases at Starlink sites in Bulgaria and Poland: Bulgarian authorities said that on October 10 multiple Starlink antennas in the country were set on fire; a September fire at a Starlink facility in Poland damaged the power system and backup generators, and Poland characterized it as sabotage and blamed Russia, detaining four suspects. Reuters wrote that the Ukrainian military makes extensive use of Starlink terminals for battlefield communications, and many drones are equipped with Starlink receivers as part of their guidance systems; Vitkauskas said "the target is Ukraine." Moscow says such accusations are unfounded.