By Andrius Sytas
VILNIUS, Oct 18 (Reuters) – Lithuania is treating an attempted arson attack at a SpaceX Starlink base station on Sunday as a Russia-linked act of sabotage aimed at undermining Ukraine’s military capacity, the head of the government’s National Crisis Management Centre said.
Lithuanian authorities are searching for suspects who attempted to set fire to a Starlink base station on the outskirts of the capital Vilnius at about 2 a.m. (2300 GMT on Saturday), said Vilmantas Vitkauskas.
The blaze was quickly extinguished, causing only minor property damage and no disruption to operations, he added.
“We understand that this was not a routine arson attack but an act of sabotage,” Vitkauskas told reporters in Vilnius.
He 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.”
Ukraine uses Starlink terminals extensively for battlefield communications and installs Starlink receivers in many of its drones as part of their guidance systems.
The terminals are used to conduct strikes on Russian targets inside Ukraine and help its interceptor drones defend against Russian drone attacks.
Bulgarian authorities said fire was set to several Starlink antennas in the country on October 10, according to local media reports. And a fire at a Starlink facility in Poland in September damaged its power system and backup generator.
Poland said at the time it believed the fire was an act of sabotage aimed at disrupting internet services, including for Ukraine’s military, and blamed Russia. Four suspects were detained.
Moscow says such accusations are baseless and the result of anti-Russian hysteria.
(Reporting by Andrius Sytas in Vilnius; Editing by Joe Bavier)
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