Republika Srpska (1992–95) the Serb people in Bosnia and Herzegovina: At the same session, the Bosnian Serb assembly voted to create the Army of the Republika Srpska ("VRS") ("Vojska Republike Srpske"), and appointed Ratko Mladić, the commander of the Second Military District of the Yugoslav federal army, as commander of the VRS Main Staff. At the end of May 1992, after the withdrawal of Yugoslav forces from Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Second Military District was essentially transformed into the Main Staff of the VRS. The new army immediately set out to achieve by military means the six "strategic objectives" of the Serbian people
Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina with light weaponry. The army was surrounded and the transfer of supplies was hard, if not impossible. 1993 saw no major changes in the front lines against Serbs. Instead, this year marked the start of the Croat–Bosniak War in Central Bosnia and in Herzegovina, notably the Mostar region. Pressured and contained by heavily armed Serb forces in Bosnia-Hercegovina and Croatia, ethnic Croat militia forces – the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) – shifted their focus from defending their parts of Bosnia from Serbs to trying to capture remaining territory held by the Bosnian Army. It is widely believed that this was