In July 2016, the then-governor of Zakarpattia Oblast, Hennadiy Moskal, was the first to announce the idea of a mega ski resort on the Svydovets mountain range.

He announced that the existing Bukovel ski resort, which as later exposed was controlled by companies linked to Ihor Kolomoisky (third richest man in Ukraine and owner of the television station that launched the career of President Volodymyr Zelensky), would expand to include the Svydovets mountain range.

The construction of a large-scale infrastructure in the undisturbed mountain area of Svydovets threatened the whole ecosystem and the hydrological systems throughout the wider region.

The legal problems of the promoters of the controversial Svydovets ski resort raised the question if they are trustworthy and reliable partners for a large-scale project that implies the privatization of 1430 hectares of state lands.

In June 2019 the report ‘Svydovets Case: How oligarchs are planning to destroy one of Ukraine’s most pristine natural landscapes‘ was presented in Kyiv.

[5] Svydovets hosts one of the ten units of the Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians, recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007.