Lithuania will increase vigilance at more than 15 critical infrastructure sites following an attempted arson attack on a Starlink facility in Vilnius. Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius announced the measures on October 19 after a National Security Commission meeting, according to BNS reporting carried by TV3.
He said the heightened security would start that day, with more personnel and greater technical and physical protection at the sites.
The attempted attack happened during the early hours of October 18. Sinkevičius said a guard spotted the fires and began extinguishing them. The antennas did not catch fire, while a control unit suffered slight fire damage.
For Starlink users, the immediate concern is whether the incident interrupted service. Vilmantas Vitkauskas, head of Lithuania’s National Crisis Management Centre, told Reuters that operations had continued without disruption.
Vitkauskas described the incident as Russia-linked sabotage intended to undermine Ukraine’s military communications. That remains an allegation by Lithuanian officials; the reports do not establish who carried out the attack.
On October 19, Sinkevičius said the suspects had not yet been identified and that a pre-trial investigation and an intensive search were under way.
Archive photo: Lithuanian Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius meets Latvian parliamentarians on August 20, 2026. Photo: Ieva Ābele-Ozoliņa/Saeima, CC BY-SA 4.0.
