KYIV -- Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) chief Vasyl Hrytsak says a woman suspected of killing a top regional security officer earlier this year in the southeastern city of Mariupol has been arrested.

Hrytsak said late on October 31 that the woman, Yulia Prasolova of Donetsk, was arrested in the Black Sea port city of Odesa, as she was attempting to obtain a passport.

According to Hrytsak, Prasolova received $15,000 from Russia-backed separatists in Donetsk for placing an explosive device in the car of Colonel Oleksandr Kharaberyush. He was killed when his vehicle exploded on March 31.

The government-controlled city of Mariupol is about 30 kilometers from the front line in the conflict between the Ukrainian Army and separatist forces that has killed more than 10,000 people in eastern Ukraine since April 2014.