Zhovte (Ukraine) (AFP) - A rusty boat crossing a calm river in separatist east Ukraine is all that enables hundreds of people living in rebel-held territory to pick up pensions and vital supplies from the government side.

The illegal operation across the 50-metre (165-foot) wide Siverskyi Donets is run by a boatsman who charges pocket change from the 500 people who travel back and forth each month while battled-hardened fighters watch.

He operates the boat -- made of metal with room for two or three people --- by pulling his old vessel by hand with the help of a rope attached to each side of the shore.

The lazy stream is part of an informal border splitting the pro-Russian separatist regions of Lugansk and Donetsk from the rest of the Western-backed former Soviet republic.

There are only five legal crossing points along the 500-kilometre (310-mile) line of contact between the well-fortified forces.

The limit is aimed at keeping insurgents from infiltrating Kiev-controlled regions and spreading a 26-month conflict that has claimed more than 9,400 lives and driven another two million from their homes.

But even those few openings along the heavily-mined front are often closed because of shelling from heavy weapons that were due to have been withdrawn under the terms of a tattered peace deal signed in February 2015.

It has left people like Valentyna -- a pensioner who lives near the rebels' checkpoint in Zhovte -- no choice but to use this relatively peaceful spot of the Lugansk region to pick up essentials like medicine and government handouts.

"Both sides let us through because they know we go for our pensions," Valentyna says.

"Before the war, there was a ferry and a pedestrian bridge across the river, but that bridge was destroyed by the fighting," she adds.

- 'Tacit agreement' -

An unspoken set of rules has been established between the sworn foes fighting on each side to let the civilians through.

An insurgent who identifies himself by the nom de guerre Chekh lays down his Kalashnikov rifle each time he approaches the pier.

Story continues

"We see each other throughout the day and have a sort of tacit agreement not to initiate hostilities," the 30-year-old told AFP.

"It is quiet along our part of the front. But a little further down, there were three deaths the other day. There are constant provocations," Chekh says.

Lugansk is the smaller of the two separatist regions in Ukraine and has only one legal crossing point that is often crowded with cars and buses waiting long hours while the opposing camps' guards check the required identity documents.

This makes passageways like the one across Siverskyi Donets essential for those trying to make end meets during one of Europe's deadliest conflicts in decades.

"We let everyone through. We just check their papers," said a rebel fighter in a Cossack hat who identified himself only as Alexander.

"For us this crossing is legal, but the Ukrainians sometimes shut it down."

- Students and smugglers -

Some adults and children also use the old boat to get to work or school.

"About 30 people make the crossing every day," Alexander says after letting through two girls returning from classes on the rebels' side of the river to their village near the Kiev-held bank.

Ukrainian soldiers usually turn a blind eye on the small trickle of people who break the rules set out by Kiev.

But they do on occasion spot more suspicious people who use the passage to carry goods they buy on the Ukrainian side and then resell at a profit in their impoverished separatist-controlled village.

"We often catch smugglers who transport goods by boat," Ukrainian border guard Ruslan Grekh says.

"The soldiers let the civilians through but this is not official."

The tenuous situation has people like the pensioner Valentyna worried that either side may soon crack down on the illegal crossings and make life for them more painful still.

"In that case, I will just lose my pension," says Valentyna.

"I understand that this is a war, but war does not feed the elderly."