A Ukrainian model who was left in a coma after sustaining serious injuries in Dubai is now in a wheelchair and learning how to walk again.
In March this year, Maria Kovalchuk was found by the side of a road in Dubai barely alive, with her injuries suggesting that she had fallen from a great height, as her spine and multiple limbs were broken.
However, Maria said she did not fall but was instead pushed by a group of wealthy men who had 'intimidated' her and told her 'you belong to us'.
The model's friends and family feared she might have been kidnapped into sexual slavery or forced into a Dubai 'porta potty party', though Maria herself has not said this was the case.
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Before she was severely injured, she told her mother Anna what she thought was happening as according to the Daily Mail, back when reports of Maria's ordeal first surfaced, her mum said her daughter messaged to say she was staying with two men who claimed to be 'representatives of the modelling business'.
What exactly happened to Maria Kovalchuk in Dubai?
Anna said that there was 'an assumption' that her daughter had gone to a party, but the promoter who organised these parties did not see her'.
Since leaving Dubai and returning to live with her mother in Norway, Maria has explained the ordeal
She said she overslept and missed her flight to Thailand, and then met a man who offered to let her stay in his hotel room as she was supposed to be checking out, all while saying his father's private jet could be used to fly her.
The model said when she got to the hotel room, there was a party with 'rich Russian kids' who got aggressive with her when they noticed she wasn't drinking.
Maria said they took her personal belongings and told her, 'you belong to us', with them telling her 'we will do whatever we want' as another woman took her belongings and left the hotel room with them.
The Ukrainian woman tried to escape after the men implied they wanted sex, but the men 'dragged her back into the room', though she was able to get away once more and took refuge in a construction site neighbouring the hotel.
How Maria Kovalchuk sustained her injuries
There she said the men hunted her down and 'beat her', explaining that she suffered horrific injuries which put her in a coma.
"I think that maybe I was thrown. Or it was a beating. One of two options, the injuries looked like either a beating or a fall," Maria said.
"Most likely, there was a blow to the head, I suppose. The next scene [that] I remember is me asking for help from a passing car, which had already stopped and called an ambulance and the police."
The men were detained for one day in Dubai and claimed they had been trying to help Maria, while the model's mother Anna said a claim from Dubai police that her daughter had attempted suicide 'to protect her honour' was untrue.
Anna said that her daughter's injuries were such that her scalp had to be 'sewn back on', and that Maria has had to have 'three operations on one leg, three on the other, two on her spine, and one on her shoulder blade' because of her injuries.
Topics: Dubai, Crime, World News
Joe Harker