A Ukrainian woman who was found with horrific injuries in Dubai after ‘falling from a height’ has started walking again.
Maria Kovalchuk, 20, suffered a broken spine and limbs and was found on a roadside in the city in March.
The young woman, prominent on OnlyFans, had been due at a party but mysteriously vanished.
Ms Kovalchuk is now walking again after months in a wheelchair, having undergone rehabilitation as a war refugee at a hideaway in Trondheim, Norway.
She required ten major operations after being discovered by a roadside in a coma one week after going missing.
Ms Kovalchuk told her 42,000 followers: ‘At first, I felt literally shattered, like a broken doll, and I could not imagine my future life at all.
‘I kept wondering how I would live with these injuries, with this scar, disfigured… how I would somehow go on with my life.’
She did not know how she would ‘find love’, adding: ‘So many other questions troubled me.
Maria Kovalchuk is seen in a wheelchair after ‘falling from a height’ in Dubai
The Ukrainian model is said to be walking again after the incident
Maria Kovalchuk, 20, suffered a broken spine and remains in hospital after her body was found on a roadside in Dubai
‘But over time, my perception of the world began to change.
‘I started paying more attention to my inner self and realised that what matters most is your inner state – what you learn and what you feel.
‘Of course, there were difficulties with this, too.
‘But I managed thanks to the support of my loved ones and my friends. And I felt the healing power of love.’
Ms Kovalchuk now spends her time teaching make-up.
The Ukrainian claimed she was tortured by wealthy Russians at a three-day party in Dubai.
It is still not known what exactly took place.
The Russians denied abusing Ms Kovalchuk, and nobody has been prosecuted for her injuries which a surgeon insisted could not have been caused by an accidental construction site fall or due to self-harm.
Ms Kovalchuk says she has no memory of her ‘torture’.
The young woman, prominent on OnlyFans, had been due at a party but mysteriously vanished
A friend previously told AIF news outlet in Russia: ‘Maria has finally regained consciousness. The recent surgery was successful, now there are two more’
She had ‘three operations on one leg, three on the other, two on her spine, and one on her shoulder blade’, said her mother Anna, alleging her daughter had undergone brutal beatings.
‘A knife cut her face and scalped her’, she said.
‘It was done with a knife from the centre of the head all the way down to the eye, and the hair was cut off.’
The family revealed the 20-year-old’s medical bills for numerous operations were fully covered via Dubai police, amid suggestions of a cover-up.
Anna also claimed she had been threatened online for speaking out about the case.
After speaking out publicly, Anna said she ‘got a disappearing message on my phone’.
It allegedly read: ‘We’ll find you even in Norway.’
The mother said: ‘When young men have money and no boundaries, they found themselves a ‘pet’, someone they could torment.
‘Just to trigger her, watch her suffer, see her fear – almost as entertainment.
‘And then at some point, it crossed a line. That’s the turning point — they went too far.’