Industry News
While Ukraine battles Russia’s ongoing invasion, the post-war future of the embattled nation is being reimagined in the Carpathian Mountains. OKKO Group recently began work on the GORO Mountain Resort, a $1.5 billion development set to rival Europe’s best alpine destinations. OKKO Group announced on its website that the company had started construction on October 23, 2024.
Located in the Lviv region, 681 kilometers (423 miles) from Kyiv and 161 kilometers (100 miles) from the Polish border, the resort will feature 41 ski trails with a length of over 120 kilometers (75 miles) across a ski area of 360 hectares (890 acres), which will serviced by two modern gondola cable cars and 11 chairlifts.
In addition to the ski area, an entire mountain village with a hospitality network of 25 hotels boasting 5,500 rooms is in the planning. The GORO Mountain Resort will stretch across a total area of 1,200 hectares (2,965 acres), and completion of the first phase, covering 127 hectares (319 acres), is planned for 2028-2029. It is anticipated that the whole project will take 15 years to complete, and OKKO will invest $500 million directly, while the remaining $1 billion is intended to be sourced from institutional investors, including Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, and Vanguard.
OKKO Group is the largest gas station network in Ukraine. The company was founded by Vitaly Antonov and is owned by Galnaftogaz. The GORO Mountain Resort was initially proposed back in 2017 and was scheduled to begin in the spring of 2022, but the Russian invasion postponed these plans. The grand plans include the construction of Ukraine’s first gondola cable cars as well as the country’s longest ski run at 3.8 kilometers (2.4 miles). OKKO Group has engaged world-class experts for the creation of the year-round resort, including ILF Group, who have been behind ski resort expansions at the Remarkables in New Zealand and Pitztal-Ötztal in Austria, as well as engineering the snow-making infrastructure at some of Austria’s largest resorts, such as Sölden, Saalbach-Hinterglemm, St. Anton, and Kitzbühel. Furthermore, OKKO has signed a contract with Austrian-Swiss ski lift manufacturer Doppelmayr/Garaventa Group. The ski village will be built by GORO Development, an investment and development company that will also manage the resort.
Now, in the middle of the war, the project is taking a bold step forward and has started construction of the Welcome Center and the lower station of the gondola cable car. In addition, groundwork has started for the first ski slopes and two modern chair lifts. Completion of the first phase of construction is planned for 2028-29. This project represents more than recreation—it’s a bold step toward economic revitalization.
“These are strategic investments in the recovery and future of Ukraine. We do see the prospect, even despite the challenges of war, and understand the importance of such ambitious projects for the social and economic development of Lviv region. The new mountain recreational project should become a magnet for Ukrainian and foreign tourists and potential investors, putting a modern Ukrainian mountain location on the tourist map of Europe. GORO Mountain Resort will be a place not only for active recreation but also for health improvement and psychological rehabilitation.”
— Vasyl Danyliak, CEO, OKKO Group
Russia, however, continues leveraging disinformation to tarnish this vision. State media falsely alleges the resort involves land theft or is a cover for NATO, flooding platforms with ecological concerns and military conspiracy theories. These efforts form part of a broader strategy to undermine Ukraine’s credibility and deter foreign investment. In a recent post on X (formerly Twitter) as well as YouTube, Russian propaganda channels accused the Ukrainian government of syphoning international aid funds away from humanitarian efforts to the construction of the ski resort.
Despite the war and disinformation threats, Ukraine’s determination to build the GORO Mountain Resort remains unshaken. GORO symbolizes resilience—a testament that even amidst conflict, the nation continues to reach for new heights.
