Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Confirms Someone Burned Starlink Antennas Near Sofia

Image: Starlink

Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev confirmed in parliament on Wednesday that Starlink antennas near Sofia were set on fire, according to The Sofia Globe. He gave almost no details, saying the investigation is being worked on with partner services, is “extremely intensive” and should produce a result soon. He also asked the head of the State Agency for National Security, Plamen Tonchev, not to reveal anything until it’s finished, since premature disclosure could hurt the case.

The arson only became public after Ivaylo Mirchev, an opposition MP from Democratic Bulgaria, posted on Facebook that 11 of 17 Starlink antennas at a secret site near Sofia had been burned, and that his information pointed to two masked men. He said nobody in government or the media had mentioned it. Bulgarian outlets including Capital and Fakti.bg place the site near the village of Plana south of Sofia, and reports put the fire on or around October 9.

Officials have said little else on the record. Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev told parliament that although owners are responsible for security at such sites, his ministry has taken additional measures to protect similar ones across the country. Tonchev said the site is private property and that “our forces are not infinite,” and when an opposition MP asked why Radev wouldn’t name Russia the way Poland’s Donald Tusk did, Radev answered that “everything is clear to us, but the investigation must be completed.”

Separately, several Bulgarian outlets reported Wednesday evening that two men aged 20 and 21 with German passports were detained on October 12. Petel relayed the claim from Faktor.bg, which cited sources in the prosecutor’s office, and Faktor.bg added that investigators are checking whether the pair are linked to the arrests in Germany. None of that has been confirmed by Bulgarian authorities, and Radev didn’t address it.

The case echoes the fire at Exatel’s Starlink uplink station in Wola Krobowska, Poland, on September 23, which Polish officials called sabotage. German police later arrested two Turkish nationals over that blaze at Poland’s request, and Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński said they face charges of sabotage on behalf of a foreign intelligence service, without saying which one.

Ground stations like these are the link between the satellites and the wider internet, which is why they matter well beyond one antenna field. The Polish site serves Central Europe and Ukraine, and Capital reported that Plana appears to be one of three Starlink gateway locations in Bulgaria and the wider Balkans, citing an unofficial map. It also found the land belongs to Vivacom Bulgaria, while Neterra, Starlink’s official distributor in the country, said the infrastructure isn’t its property and its network is unaffected. It’s still unclear how much service, if any, was disrupted.

Should ground stations like this get the same protection as other critical infrastructure?