FinEst Volunteers

It’s horrific! Footage has been released online showing a Russian ballistic missile—equipped with a cluster munition warhead—striking Kyiv last night. The Russians are using banned cluster munitions with the intent to kill as many civilians as possible.

This is what deliberate American sabotage of Ukraine’s ability to defend itself looks like; don’t look away.

NICKEL22 update, 10 October 2026 Recent developments EU ambassadors agreed the 22nd sanctions package on 7 October, and foreign ministers are due to adopt it formally on 12 October. Reports say it adds a record 1,646 people and companies to the sanctions list but brings no major new trade bans. If so, that makes 22 packages in a row that leave Russian nickel matte (CN 7501) and unwrought nickel (CN 7502) untouched. These are the products used by the refinery in Harjavalta, which Nornickel owns outright. About 94% of the refinery’s raw material comes from Nornickel’s mines in Russia. Finland imported about 90,000 tonnes of Russian nickel and nickel products in 2025, roughly the pre-war level. Once refined, the metal counts as Finnish, so it can be sold even in the US and UK, which banned Russian nickel in 2024. Nornickel’s owner Vladimir Potanin is sanctioned by the US, UK, Canada and Australia but not by the EU, although Ukraine asked the EU to list him in September. We will only know whether he is on the new list when it is published. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian community in Finland has kept up the pressure with a demonstration in Helsinki on 15 September, organized together with Feeniksin Kilta, and weekly pickets since. The written question On 8 October, the leaders of the Finnish Parliament’s Ukraine group put a written question to the government. They are Oras Tynkkynen (Greens), Aleksi Jäntti (National Coalition Party) and Mikko Savola (Centre Party). They ask five things: - whether Finland has proposed or supported an EU ban on these two products; - why Russian copper matte and nickel ore are banned but nickel matte is not; - whether Finland backs Ukraine’s call to sanction Potanin; - whether the government has looked into a national import ban; - what it will do to get the refinery into Finnish ownership, or the ownership of a company from another democracy, while protecting jobs. The minister must reply within 21 days. The written question was prepared by the nikkeli.eu -team and published almost word-to-word in the form that we proposed. The citizens’ initiative Our citizens’ initiative, “Russian nickel imports and refining in Finland must end”, was published on 9 October at kansalaisaloite.fi/fi/aloite… The ban: it calls for a national law, on public security grounds, banning the import, refining and use in Finland of Russian nickel matte and unwrought nickel, whichever country they come through. The ban would last until the EU adopts a similar ban. - The EU track: it also asks Parliament to require the government to push for that EU ban. - Legal basis: EU import rules leave room for national bans on public security grounds. Latvia used this route in 2024 to ban Russian and Belarusian farm and feed products. - Workers: the ban would take effect six months after the law passes. The refinery’s roughly 270 workers would get state support for retraining and finding new work. - Copper: the ban would also permanently end the refinery’s shipments of copper-rich by-product to Russia. That by-product made up most of the €1.33 billion of copper Finland exported to Russia between 2022 and 2025. The shipments paused this spring only because the EU sanctioned Murmansk port, and the company is looking for another port. Signing opens on 14 October. We need 50,000 signatures from Finnish citizens aged 18 or over within six months, so that the Parliament elected in April 2027 can decide on it. Support from MPs. The written question is backed by MPs from the Prime Minister’s own National Coalition Party and from two opposition parties. That shows concern over Russian nickel now crosses party lines in Finland. What you can do - If you are a Finnish citizen aged 18 or over, in Finland or abroad, sign the initiative from 14 October at kansalaisaloite.fi/fi/aloite…. Ask your friends and family to sign too. - Write to a Finnish MP or your MEP with our letter tool at nikkeli.eu/write-a-letter.ht…. Use your own words. Ask them to back the initiative and to push for nickel matte, unwrought nickel and Vladimir Potanin to be included in the EU’s next sanctions package. - Forward any replies to [email protected] so we can add them to the count on nikkeli.eu. NICKEL22 is a volunteer campaign backed by Feeniksin Kilta and Ukrainalaisten yhdistys Suomessa. nikkeli.eu