WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon is poised to send a $1 billion package of military aid to Ukraine, several U.S. officials said Tuesday as the Senate began debate on long-awaited legislation to fund the weapons Kyiv desperately needs to stall gains being made by Russian forces in the war.

The decision comes after months of frustration, as bitterly divided members of Congress deadlocked over the funding, forcing House Speaker Mike Johnson to cobble together a dramatic bipartisan coalition to pass the bill. The $95 billion foreign aid package passed the House on Saturday and the Senate approval is expected either Tuesday or Wednesday.

The votes are the result of weeks of high-voltage debate, including threats from Johnson’s hard right faction to oust him as speaker. About $61 billion of the aid is for Ukraine.

The package includes an array of ammunition, including air defense munitions and large amounts of artillery rounds that are much in demand by Ukrainian forces, as well as armored vehicles and other weapons. The U.S. officials said some of the weapons will be delivered very quickly to the battlefront — at times within days — but it could longer for other items to arrive. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the aid has not yet been publicly announced.

America’s infusion of weapons comes on the heels of an announcement by the U.K. on Tuesday, pledging an additional $620 million in new military supplies for Ukraine, including long-range missiles and four million rounds of ammunition.

The announcement reflects President Joe Biden’s promise Monday in a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying that the U.S. would send the badly needed air defense weapons once the Senate approved the bill. Zelensky said in a posting on X, formerly Twitter, that Biden also assured him that a coming package of aid would also include long-range and artillery capabilities.

The $1 billion package was first reported by Reuters.

The increase in China’s defense spending is concerning given its economy is “failing”, the head of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said on Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters in Tokyo, Admiral John Aquilino said China’s economy had been battered by turmoil in its real estate sector and asserted that its official growth rates were “not real”.

He also said China was spending “drastically more” on its military than the 7.2% increase it declared last month.

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“Despite a failing economy, there’s a conscious decision to fund military capability. That’s concerning to me,” said Aquilino, who is due to leave his post next month.

He also criticized China’s increasingly aggressive rhetoric and actions in the South and East China Seas, specifically around the disputed Second Thomas Shoal and Taiwan.

“As it applies specifically to Taiwan, I am watching an increasingly aggressive campaign plan of coercion and pressure,” he said.

The Chinese foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

A top Chinese military leader told a gathering of senior foreign naval officials this week that China remains committed to resolving maritime disputes with other countries through dialogue but will not allow itself to be “abused”.

Aquilino also labeled North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s regime “disgusting” for spending on its military even as the country has grappled with food shortages.

“This is another regime where every bit of economic advance that they may have despite the sanctions are going towards military capability and not to feeding the North Korean people. That’s disgusting,” he said.

This summer’s European Parliament elections are a test for the radical right across the continent – but in Spain, the outcome could determine the future of the country’s main far-right party, Vox.

Despite the rise of the far right throughout Europe, Vox haemorrhaged 600,000 votes in Spain’s last general election, and the country’s mainstream right-wingers are trying to keep up the pressure. 

In Madrid, members of Spain’s longstanding conservative Popular Party (PP) are conducting a membership drive, calling on voters to join the “Ayuso Team.”

The phrase refers to Isabel Díaz Ayuso, one of the PP’s most popular leaders and President of the Community of Madrid. She won the presidency in the regional elections in 2019, in a campaign that made her the first conservative leader to curb Vox’s rise.

Ayuso has managed to snatch thousands of votes from the far-right party by adopting such narratives as the defence of economic freedom, like Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, and the defence of the unity of Spain in the face of regional separatism.

She has also waged a cultural battle against leftist parties, a strategy that caters to Vox’s conservative target voters.

“I am convinced that the Vox voter has the same concerns and tastes as I do,” said PP member Luis Monedero. “So if he wants his demands to be carried out, he should cast a strategic vote and really vote for the party that will take them and implement them in the European Parliament.”

“President Ayuso has been fighting the battle of ideas from the very beginning, which are not necessarily right-wing ideas,” explains PP member Ignacio Dancausa. “People have realised that the left has turned that exclusionary radical feminism into an industry, they have turned that absurd environmentalism into an industry as well.”

Andrés Santana, Professor of Political Science at the Autonomous University of Madrid, told Euronews that “Vox will need more than just attracting disenchanted voters. They will have to show that their vote is really more attractive to those voters who once left the PP.”

However, there is a gap between Ayuso’s muscular discourse and the more moderate positions of the PP’s national leader, Alberto Núñez Feijoo. The party faces a serious challenge as it tries to attract Vox voters without alienating centre-right voters.

And Vox has not had its last word. For one thing, the recent farmers’ protests sweeping across Europe could boost the party in this summer’s continent-wide elections.

It withstood the PP’s onslaught in recent Basque regional elections – and however successful the PP’s efforts to monopolise the mainstream vote, is expected that the party will at least improve on its showing in the 2019 European elections and finally consolidate itself as Spain’s third political force.