Warning: This article contains allegations which some readers may find distressing.
A Ukrainian model has opened up on her harrowing experience in Dubai where she claims she was attacked after a party.
Maria Kovalchuk was found on a Dubai roadside in March this year with a number of serious injuries, admitting that she is now wheelchair-bound as a result of her health complications.
The 20-year-old was feared to have been kidnapped into sexual slavery, and discovered she had a broken spine and several broken limbs as a result of what happened to her in the Middle Eastern city.
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Kovalchuk, previously an OnlyFans model, was thought to be involved in the infamous 'Porta-Potty Parties' in Dubai.
These involve rich men offering large amounts of money to young women to abuse and degrade them, who often have many followers on social media.
She was missing for over a week before being found, and was in a coma after her discovery after it was found she had 'fallen from a height'.
While the model has chosen to speak out about her experience for the first time, she is choosing to do so in Norway, where her mum lives.
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Speaking in a video, she admitted she 'would never want to go back' to Dubai, claiming: "The police wouldn't let us leave, they took my passport, and we were in the hospital the whole time.
"I have one leg left that is healing, and I will be fully recovered in six weeks, and then I will be able to walk on both legs."
Explaining that her spine was 'broken in three places', along with metal being inserted into other parts of her body, Kovalchuk also now has a scar on her forehead as a result of her injuries.
She added that citizens of the United Arab Emirates were not responsible for her experience, instead blaming 'rich Russian kids' who abused her, as local authorities even paid for her medical treatment.
“I don’t know how much they paid — the sum was colossal, millions,” her mother, Anna, claimed.
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She said that this was done in exchange for a favour - for the model not to say anything which would put the authorities in a bad light, according to Russian news outlet Ostorozhno, Novosti.
Reflecting on what happened to her, the model doesn't remember exactly what led to her injuries, claiming that footage has since been erased.
She said: “Three months have passed — the police waited until the cameras were automatically wiped [after this period]. So now there’s no evidence.”
Now relying on a wheelchair and crutches for mobility, Kovalchuk said she was in Dubai to get content for OnlyFans, before oversleeping and missing her flight to Thailand.
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But when meeting a young man in a Dubai hotel lobby, he offered to fly her to Thailand in a private jet, which led to a party in his room with rich businessmen from Ukraine and Russia.
Claiming that she was being teased for not drinking, which was followed by pushing and degrading remarks, the model added: “They started behaving inappropriately, smashing bottles on the floor.
“That is, the entire floor was strewn with broken glass, that is, it was impossible to walk there.”
They then took her belongings, and she claimed that a girl put her things on and left in them.
This led to the men 'hinting' that they wanted sex, and a report detailed that she tried to flee as the violence increased from the men, though they didn't let her leave.
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Despite managing to flee to a construction site, she was found and physically beaten by the men.
“I ran away. Then, already on the street, when I was, I didn’t see them anymore, but I knew they were coming,” she recalled.
“I ran to the nearest building, just scared, and ran in, hid there. It was just an unfinished building, open.”
While what happened next is unclear, she said there was a blow to the head, and that she called for help from a passing car, which had already called authorities.
She suggested: “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.”
According to the report, the men accused were detained by local police for just one day, with no apparent charges against them, as they claimed they tried to find Maria after she asked to come to their party.
“The [Dubai] police investigation indicated that Maria said that she was running away from sexual violence and then went to protect her honour, her dignity, decided to commit suicide,” the mother explained, adding that the case was closed with the accused released.
However, she said this was not true at all, and nor was she intoxicated according to medical tests.
Joshua Nair