The Ukrainian government has formally asked the Netherlands to deliver F-16 fighter jets to the US after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Europe to persuade his European allies to send him weapons and additional military personnel, CNN reports, News.ro reports.

“Ukraine has asked the Netherlands to supply F-16 aircraft,” the Air Force of Ukraine reported on Twitter.

Ukrainian officials have recently pushed for the West to send them fighter jets, but have not made any formal request.

The Ministry of Defense of the Netherlands has confirmed that Ukraine has officially requested F-16s. “Ukraine really asked us to help her with the planes,” Dutch Defense Minister Kaisa Ollongren told CNN affiliate NOS News on Thursday.

“We always treat all requests of Ukraine very seriously. They are waging this war, Russia is attacking them. But fighter jets are something very complicated,” she emphasized.

The Netherlands is gradually replacing its F-16s. It still has 24 F-16s, which it plans to replace next year with F-35s. In 2021, the Netherlands sold 12 F-16s back to the United States for pilot training.

When asked what is the difference between the request for fighter jets and other weapons that the Netherlands has supplied to Ukraine, Ollongren replied that it is the “complexity of the system.”

It’s about learning to work with them, and that’s more than learning to fly such an aircraft. It is at the center of the entire logistics system,” Ollongren said.

It is also about “the presence (of these planes), a fact that we have to discuss with the Americans and other allies, but also (about) a very serious analysis of the consequences of such a delivery,” she stressed.