Iraq will receive weapons and military equipment from Ukraine under a $2.5bn deal in a bid to support Iraq’s armed forces before the planned pullout of US troops, according to the head of Ukraine’s Security and Defence Committee.

Anatoly Grytsenko said the agreement with the Iraqi Ministry of Defence called for Ukraine to produce and deliver 420 BTR-4 armoured personnel carriers, six AN-32B military transport planes and other military hardware to Iraq.

“The deal also includes repair work on two Mi-8T military helicopters for Iraq,” Grytsenko said.

“The contract is to be carried out in stages and, from what I was told, just the first stage is worth $400m.”