Roman Lakuda spent six days hunger striking by Ukraine House in the center of Kyiv. He is pale, moves and speaks slowly, and often loses the thread of conversation.

“I am sorry, it is just hard to concentrate,” he says in Ukrainian, of course, because the whole strike started off to protest against a law that elevated the status of the Russian language. Many believe the law will shrink the use of the only official language in the nation of 46 million. Parliament adopted the law on July 3, but is yet to be signed by the speaker and the president.

Most of the strikers decided to stop the hunger strike on July 18. “We have seen that the hunger strike is a passive form of protest which proved to be ineffective, “said Oksana Nezhyvenko, one of the leaders of the group of 10 young activists who remained on hunger strike until July 18.

Four activists decided to continue their hunger strike and say they will remain outside the Ukraine House until parliament drops the bill.

So far, the protest was not only ineffective, it also made several people very ill. Six of the activists had to be hospitalized for treatment. Moreover, protesters could not get medical treatment from either the state, or private clinics for reasons that seem to be tied to politics.

Nezhyvenko, a 26-year-old Vinnytsya native, went on hunger strike on July 8, five days after the law was approved in parliament.

After 11 days without food she is feeling unwell and fainting. Two other young men who have been on hunger strike for 11-12 days display similar symptoms. A total of 17 people were on hunger strike in various times in the past two weeks. Around 100 others were protesting on the spot, many more checking in occasionally, donating supplies, chatting to protesters and the media.

The main subject remains the same.

“As a law student I can say that this language law allows citizens of Ukraine to not know Ukrainian at all, not even study it at school,” says Lakuda, a 21 year-old from Lviv.

Lakuda says most people who come to the camp are “movingly supportive”.

“Some ask what we need and then bring us blankets, water and food for those protesters who are not on hunger strike,” he says.

As Lakuda speaks to the Kyiv Post just before the announcement is made about the end of the hunger strike, a middle aged woman comes by with a jar of honey and asks who in the camp accepts donations.

“I thought maybe those on hunger strike can drink water with honey. I totally support these young people, despite the fact that I speak Russian in everyday life,” she says in Russian.

Anna Yushchenko, a 20-year old, is back on the square straight from the hospital, where she was taken because she fell ill from hunger striking. She spent several days on intravenous therapy at home and had to give up on her hunger strike.

But the health problems are not the most shocking part of her story. When she fell ill, she was taken to the hospital by the municipal ambulance, but the doctor refused to treat her.

“He suggested that I start eating instead. Two policemen were in the hospital questioning me, others came to my home and spoke to my mother,” Yushchenko says.

She adds that the police in the hospital asked her if she was a member of any political party, and whether she was paid to go on hunger strike.

After Yushchenko and other female protester were denied treatment in municipal hospitals, activists called a private one which sent an ambulance to check on strikers. But several days later, even private ambulances refused to come to the Ukraine House.

“They said they do not have spare [ambulances] at the moment and declined to send one later as well. We assume they received an order from the Health Ministry,” Front Zmin, an oppositional party, said in a press statement.

Lakuda says that when a private clinic agreed to treat the protesters, they wanted to do it as quietly as possible.

“They sent a regular car, not an ambulance, to pick up a person and takes him or her to the hospital for a checkup,” he says.

Activists are launching a broader anti-government campaign. They now plan a date for the next protest in Kyiv city center.

Kyiv Post staff writer Svitlana Tuchynska can be reached at tuchynska@kyivpost.com