---
title: "Danish intelligence sees a limited Russian attack on Nato as a live risk"
description: "The warning landed hours after Poland called a fire at a Starlink station sabotage"
author: "Walter Pine"
published: 2026-09-24T16:05:44Z
modified: 2026-09-26T11:44:42Z
url: https://rews.cc/a/danish-intelligence-sees-a-limited-russian-attack-on-nato-as-0e9af5
language: en
tags: ["nato", "russia", "war", "ukraine", "hybrid-warfare", "europe", "world"]
publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)"
---

# Danish intelligence sees a limited Russian attack on Nato as a live risk

*The warning landed hours after Poland called a fire at a Starlink station sabotage*

By Walter Pine · September 24, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/danish-intelligence-sees-a-limited-russian-attack-on-nato-as-0e9af5

## In brief

- A night fire hit a Starlink station in Poland’s Masovian voivodeship and disrupted users including Ukraine’s military
- Danish defence intelligence warned of a low but growing risk of limited Russian strikes or an incursion against Nato
- Poland called the blaze sabotage and linked it to hybrid warfare, while saying responsibility was not established
- The Danish report said Russia could test Article 5, doubt US resolve and deepen divisions inside Nato
- Zelenskyy told the UN that Russia threatens states beyond Ukraine, from Moldova and Poland to the Baltics

The station in central Poland was back in service by daylight, but the fire had done what fires at satellite ground stations are meant to do: interrupt the invisible plumbing. In the Masovian voivodeship overnight, flames hit a Starlink site whose traffic helps keep institutions online, including the Ukrainian military, according to Poland’s deputy prime minister, Krzysztof Gawkowski. Local authorities called it an act of sabotage. The hardware mattered less than the timing.

Hours later, Denmark’s defence intelligence service published one of the starkest warnings yet from a Western security service: a “low but growing risk” that Russia could launch long-range strikes against Nato infrastructure supporting Ukraine, or send a small number of troops, possibly without insignia, into a neighbouring country. The Guardian reported that the Danes still judged an outright invasion of a Nato state “highly unlikely,” while adding the colder clause that it “cannot be ruled out.”

> many signs suggest this aligns with Russia’s new ‌doctrine ⁠of attack

Gawkowski said responsibility for the Polish blaze had not been established, but described it as “deliberately designed to disable the station.” He placed it in the vocabulary Donald Tusk has been using: hybrid warfare, the broad label for cyber-attacks, sabotage and disinformation meant to pressure an adversary below the threshold of open war. Starlink’s role is not abstract. It has become a key part of Ukraine’s military communications.

The Polish fire arrived inside a wider pattern. Earlier this month Germany publicly blamed Russia for an attempted drone attack on Leipzig/Halle airport; other cases under investigation include fires at drone factories and sabotage against rail infrastructure. Moscow has denied involvement in such attacks. European intelligence chiefs have nevertheless warned in recent weeks that Russia may be preparing more assertive tests of Nato’s commitment to Ukraine, while differing over how close any move might be.

Copenhagen’s assessment was specific about method and motive. It expected Russia to intensify hybrid operations with “greater consequences,” including “destructive cyber-attacks that cripple societal functions as well as sabotage attacks that carry a high risk of casualties.” The purpose, the report said, would be to pull European money, attention and matériel away from Ukraine and to widen cracks inside Nato if the alliance could not agree on a collective answer.

A source familiar with Moscow’s thinking, speaking anonymously to the Guardian, said Russia’s high command believes some Nato countries are directly in the war by helping guide missiles and drones, not merely supplying weapons and intelligence. “They therefore believe Nato is already waging a hybrid war against Russia, and that Russia has the right to respond in kind,” the source said. That sentence explains the mood better than any map.

The harder question is Article 5, the pledge that an attack on one is an attack on all. The Danish services warned of “a risk that Russia assesses that the Nato countries will not respond collectively,” especially if Moscow concludes the United States is unable or unwilling to back Europe under Donald Trump. Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, gave that anxiety a public voice last week, saying he did not want Slovakia dragged into conflict “because of some article 5.”

At the UN general assembly, Volodymyr Zelenskyy widened the frame to Moldova, Poland, the Baltic states, the south Caucasus and central Asia. “The more freedom Putin has to act, the more dangerous the world becomes for everyone else,” he said. In Poland the antennas were operating again by morning. The outage was the message.