So once through Mayorsk checkpoint on the Ukraine-controlled side, she would have headed to the town of Bakhmut.

The trip would be necessary, though, if she wanted to receive her pension. That could only be done on government-held territory.

On 16 January Liudmila had got up at 04:30 to start this gruelling process. These trips were made in inhuman conditions. It took her about 11 hours to reach Ukraine-controlled territory, she had told her daughter in the past.

Bakhmut used to be an undeveloped backwater, but now it throngs with people who have crossed the front line from Ukraine’s east, or who are waiting to return from the west. Dozens of businesses have sprung up - shops selling provisions and books for the journey across the front line; entrepreneurs running minibuses to ferry people right up to the checkpoint.

Alevtina and I travelled there to see it for ourselves.

The queues that began at the checkpoints continue here at the banks and the ATMs.

There are many elderly people like Liudmila who have embarked on the same laborious journey for the same reason - to either collect their pension or to ensure the much needed money isn’t taken away from them.

For Ukrainian nationals living in the territories controlled by Russian-backed fighters claiming your state pension is not a simple process.

Ukrainian banks don’t operate on the breakaway territory.

And in order to qualify for them you need to pretend you actually live in a Ukrainian-controlled area.

And then you have to be ready for someone to knock on the door of that property every 60 days to check if you really do live there.

Except that knock might not come on Day 60 - it might come on Day 58 or 59. So, many rely on a local friend to ring ahead and warn them the authorities are in the area.

Then the dash to the front line begins.

Liudmila had originally planned to travel a couple of days later than she actually did, her daughter says. So Alevtina thinks she must have received such a phone call to warn her, and rushed to bring her travel plans forward.

Liudmila, like others living in the region, was also eligible for another pension - from the Russian-backed authorities, Alevtina says.

But at only $46 [£36] a month, it was nowhere near enough to live on, even when supplemented by the money she earned selling vegetables. So her Ukrainian pension, giving her an additional $65 [£50] a month, was essential.

The journey is so difficult and slow that not everyone can make it across and back in 24 hours.