Warning: This article contains allegations which some readers may find distressing.
A Ukrainian model who was left in a coma for months after suffering horrible injuries in Dubai has spoken out for the first time since the horrifying incident.
Maria Kovalchuk was discovered on a roadside in Dubai back in March with serious injuries including a broken spine and numerous limbs, amid fears that the 20-year-old had been kidnapped into 'sexual slavery'.
There were also concerns that the OnlyFans model may have been subject to an infamous 'porta potty party' in Dubai, where rich men reportedly offer large sums of money to abuse and degrade young women, usually those with a significant following on social media.
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Maria has now said her injuries came at the hands of some young Russian men who invited her to a party before becoming aggressive with her after some drinks.
The model spoke with Russian news outlet Ostorozhno, Novosti from her mother's home in Norway and claimed that her expensive medical treatment was covered by the Dubai government, who asked her not to bad-mouth the United Arab Emirates in return.
She said: "I still have a leg fracture that's healing. I'm learning to walk with crutches again, but for now, the wheelchair is my main means of moving around."
Recalling the incident, Maria explains that she met a teenager in a bar after missing her flight from Dubai to Thailand, with the 19-year-old man suggesting that his father could fly her to the Southeast Asian country on a private jet, while also offering his hotel room for her to stay in.
She hoped to take the young man up on his offer and agreed to go with him and his friends to a party in exchange but things turned sour when the men became aggressive and started smashing bottles.
Maria said: "They started teasing me, why I wasn't drinking. Then some aggressive pushes like pushing in the shoulders began. After that, they started making fun of me like 'you belong to us, we will do whatever we want.'
"I tried to take it as a joke, because it was really weird. 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.
"Then they started intimidating me, smashing glass. After that, they took my personal belongings, which included my passport. And one of the girls….put on my things and just left in them, although before that I asked her not to do this, [and] to leave my things. That is, no one heard me, and she just left the hotel in my dress."
Things got even worse for Maria after she made it clear that she did not want to reciprocate the sex the men clearly wanted.
She escaped when the men stepped out onto the balcony and hid in a construction site but they found her there and allegedly beat her, with CCTV footage also reportedly wiped to ensure there was no evidence of the attack.
After the attack, things are blurry for the model but she added: "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.
"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."
Commenting on the case, the police have claimed: "A comprehensive investigation has revealed that she sustained serious injuries after entering a restricted construction site alone and falling from a height."
James Moorhouse