The investigation into a fire at communications antennas near Plana, a village outside Sofia, has received public institutional confirmation. The report of two arrests, however, comes from a news outlet citing unnamed sources. These are different levels of substantiation. They should not be combined into a definitive claim that the perpetrators have been proven responsible or that an international operation has been uncovered.
On 14 October, Faktor.bg reported two arrests on 12 October in connection with a fire during the night leading into 10 October. It cites unnamed prosecution sources. We did not find separate public official confirmation of these arrests or charges.
What has been publicly confirmed
BTA reported on 14 October that Prime Minister Rumen Radev had confirmed an investigation during a parliamentary hearing. He said the authorities were working with partner services and withholding details to avoid harming the operation. This confirms institutional activity; it does not authenticate every detail in the media reports.
On 13 October, BNT covered Ivaylo Mirchev's statement that 11 antennas serving Starlink had been set on fire. Faktor.bg also gives the figure of 11. The reports disagree about the total number of installations: BNT gives 17, whereas Faktor.bg gives 18. We therefore do not calculate a percentage of infrastructure destroyed or treat the reported counts as an operator's technical assessment.
On 14 October, BNT, citing BNR, also reported a warning from State Agency for National Security chairman Plamen Tonchev that further acts of sabotage were possible. That warning describes an assessment of risk. It does not, by itself, identify who commissioned this particular fire.
Poland has a separate investigation
The incident at Wola Krobowska is covered by an official Polish Interior Ministry statement dated 12 October. It links the arrest of two Turkish citizens in Germany to the deliberate burning of Starlink infrastructure on 23 September. The following day, BTA, reporting DPA, said a German court had ordered the two men to remain in custody.
In its initial account of the Polish investigation, the prosecution service described suspicions of activity benefiting a foreign intelligence service and a possible Russian connection. This is the investigators' position, not a court verdict. The sources we reviewed do not present evidence establishing that the Bulgarian and Polish incidents were carried out by the same group or commissioned by the same party. Similar infrastructure provides a reason to ask about a connection; it does not supply the answer.
Why the ground infrastructure matters
Satellite internet does not remove the need for physical installations on Earth. In its aviation technology description, Starlink says optical links between satellites carry data through the constellation and support service far from ground stations. This explains why the network cannot be reduced to a single antenna communicating with a single satellite. The manufacturer's description does not, however, measure the consequences of the incident near Plana.
An important technical distinction follows: the number of damaged antennas is not the number of disconnected users. An assessment requires information about the installations' role, available spare capacity and the actual behaviour of the service. Without that information, it is not possible to reliably announce either a Starlink shutdown in Bulgaria or an absence of consequences. We do not have verified operator measurements establishing the extent of any interruption.
What the next disclosures need to establish
Our editorial assessment separates two questions: who carried out the act, and what it actually did to communications. The first requires investigative evidence and judicial scrutiny. The second requires a technical assessment. Neither a suspect's passport nor an image of an antenna field can substitute for those checks.
The next substantive development would be an official statement establishing the detainees' procedural status, the assessed damage and any effect on service. Until then, the most accurate formulation is that the investigation has been confirmed, the specific arrests have been reported by Faktor.bg, and a joint operation with the Polish case has not been publicly demonstrated in the material reviewed. The individuals concerned are entitled to the presumption of innocence.
Editorial note: an original analysis of public sources checked on 15 October 2026; individual check times are retained in the internal dossier. The cover is a conceptual AI illustration, not a photograph of the facility, fire or arrests.
