Estonian state-owned railway Operail is, however, replacing VR on a route traversing Finland from Vainikkala on the eastern border to Harjavalta on the west coast, according to publicly available rail traffic data.Up until now, VR has been transporting Russian nickel to Nornickel's Finnish facility."This whole raw materials business is central to financing Putin's war machine," said Veli-Pekka Tynkkynen, a Helsinki University professor specialised in Russia's energy economy.Nickel is crucial to most electric vehicle batteries, making western states dependent on Russian exports of the metal.Nornickel Harjavalta meanwhile told Yle that the company was enabling the green transition and the development of the battery industry in Europe and Finland."