
Ukrainian model, 20, found horrifically injured in Dubai appears in wheelchair for harrowing first interview as she describes 'beating' by male revellers who warned her 'you belong to us' at party before she blacked out
Maria Kovalchuk, 20, went into a coma and suffered horrific injuries including a broken spine and limbs when she was discovered on a roadside on March 19.
The adult content creator had been due at a party but mysteriously vanished.
Her friends expressed fears she had been kidnapped before she was found 10 days later in a critical condition.
Breaking her silence on her terrifying ordeal from Norway, where she is recovering, a wheelchair-bound Maria appeared in an interview with Russian presenter Ksenia Sobchak.
Speaking to the interviewer, Maria explained that the horrific ordeal unfolded when she missed a flight from Dubai to Thailand after she overslept.
While checking out of her hotel, she bumped into a Russian man she had met at a karaoke bar once before.
After telling him about her situation, he invited her to stay in his room and told her they could fly to Thailand together in his private jet.
The man was accompanied by three friends - a man and two women.
'We went up to the room. The guys were half-sober, they had just come from a party. And overall, everything went well throughout the day. We talked, discussed our trip to Thailand.
'I even called my mum, said that everything was fine, the guys were normal. I called in their presence, to be on the safe side.
But things took dark turn the next day, when the men started to behave aggressively towards her, she says.
'They were drinking very strong alcohol, like whiskey. They started to tease me, like, why don't I drink.
'Then there were some aggressive pushes, they started to joke: 'You belong to us. We'll 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.
'After that, they took my personal belongings, which included my passport.'
Maria added that the men had 'hinted' that they wanted to have sex with her, which she did not reciprocate.
As things escalated, Maria tried to escape but said the men ultimately dragged her back into the room.
When they stepped out onto the balcony, she managed to flee and hid at a nearby construction site.
The men then found her and 'beat her', she said.
'I ran away. Then, already on the street, when I was, I didn't see them anymore, but I knew they were coming,' said Maria.
'I ran to the nearest building, just scared, and ran in, hid there. It was just an unfinished building.'
Maria said she doesn't remember the violence itself that led to her injuries, and CCTV 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,' said Maria.
'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.
She had fled wearing only a hotel robe.
'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.'
The men accused by Maria were both briefly detained by police in Dubai- but only for one day.
There appear to be no charges against them.
Maria had been missing for eight days after telling her friends she had been invited to a party at a hotel on March 9.
On March 19, ten days after she disappeared, a battered and bloodied Maria was found dumped at a roadside in Dubai with her limbs and spine broken.
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