Former President Ali Abdullah Saleh's nephew, Tariq, arrived to Ukraine to negotiate a refund for a weapons shipment which Yemen did not receive due to navigational reasons, informed sources told the local al-Ahali website.

Last year amid the turmoil triggered by the revolution against Saleh's long rule, the former regime struck a weapons deal with Ukraine, but the latter could not ship the purchased weapons due to unspecified navigational reasons. The deal included heavy weapons including tanks, according to the sources.

The sources said that Tariq is in Ukraine along with a trader who was a partner with the government in the weapons deal.

Tariq was dismissed from his post as the commander of the 3rd Brigade in April along with dozens of top loyalists to the former regime. However, he had refused to listen to the decree for over a month.

Only when the UN envoy Jamal Benomar visited Yemen and convinced him to leave the post, did he handed over the command to his successor Abdu-Rahaman al-Halili.

But even after he formally agreed to step down, he has orchestrated another rebellion conducted by his loyalists at the brigade. His loyalists prevented the newly-appointed commander from assuming his responsibilities.

The rebellion ended when some officers in the brigade carried out a counter rebellion and forced the high-ranking officers who were leading the rebellion to leave and enforced Hadi's decree.