DONETSK - About 500 Chernobyl cleanup veterans are taking part in a rally near the Donetsk regional office of the Pension Fund.
More than 40 veterans are on a hunger strike, Volodymyr Sumarokov from the Chornobyl Unity public organization said.
"We will know this evening who will stop the hunger strike and who will begin it," he said.
An ambulance took two hunger strike participants to the hospital on Monday with high blood pressure and physical exhaustion, he said.
Two more protesters refused to be hospitalized.
The Chornobyl cleanup veterans demand the full payment of their pensions in accordance with the court order.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said that the national government was considering a possible increase of pensions of Chornobyl cleanup veterans – 1st Group invalids – to Hr 4,000 starting from 2012.
"Our decision must be fair and we will make it. Pensions of Chornobyl cleanup invalids of Group 1st to 3rd will be raised. 1st Group invalids will have a pension of about Hr 4,000, while other groups will have a pension of Hr 3,000 next year," he said at the Kyiv Center of Chornobyl Radiation Protection on Nov. 18.
