Plamen Tonchev
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Arson at Starlink ground station near Sofia serves Ukrainian military, mirrors Polish attack
Two masked men set fire to 11 of 17 Starlink antennas at a secret facility near Sofia, Bulgaria, a ground station that also served Ukrainian military users, including for drone operations. Bulgarian MP Ivaylo Mirchev first disclosed the incident publicly on the evening of 12 October, criticising Bulgarian counterintelligence and filing parliamentary inquiries alongside MP Bozhidar Bozhanov. Prime Minister Rumen Radev confirmed the fire at a 14 October parliamentary hearing but declined to give details. The attack comes weeks after a similar arson at a Starlink ground base in eastern Poland that also served Ukraine, where Polish prosecutors say they have reasonable grounds to suspect Russian special services were behind the act.