MOSCOW, Russia - Russia said Tuesday it had detained a woman in occupied east Ukraine for trying to kill an official in an attack that wounded him and his son.

(Photo from AFP)

Acts of sabotage and attacks in Russian-controlled Ukraine have been common throughout Moscow's offensive, and sometimes attributed to Kyiv's security forces.

"A suspect was detained for the attempted murder of the former chairman of the customs committee of the Lugansk People's Republic," Russia's Investigative Committee said in a statement.

Lugansk, which has been partially controlled by Russian-backed separatists since 2014, is one of four regions Moscow claimed to have annexed last year.

"The man and his son suffered multiple wounds and are currently in a medical facility," the statement said, adding that "there was no threat to their lives."

The Investigative Committee, which probes serious crimes, did not name the official but state run news agency TASS and Ukrainian media identified him as Yuri Afanasievsky, who is under EU, Swiss, Canadian and Japanese sanctions.

Moscow said the suspect was a female resident of Lugansk, the main city in the region, alledging that she gave the official "a phone with an explosive device" on September 3.

It said the device "switched on after the phone was activated."

The woman has been detained on suspicion of illegally storing and carrying explosives. The committee said it had questioned a "wide circle of individuals" in connection to the attack.

A source in Ukraine's SBU security services told Ukrainian media that  Afanasievsky was "blown up in his house" and claimed he was "in intensive care in serious condition."