The capabilities of the HV increased dramatically in the first few months of 1992 because it acquired large stockpiles of JNA's weapons in the Battle of the Barracks. After the JNA disengaged in Croatia, its personnel prepared to set up a new Bosnian Serb army, later renamed the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS). The move followed the Bosnian Serb declaration of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina on 9 January 1992, ahead of the 29 February–1 March 1992 referendum on Bosnia and Herzegovina's independence. The referendum would later be cited as a pretext for the Bosnian War, which commenced in early April 1992, when the VRS's artillery began shelling Sarajevo. The JNA and the VRS in Bosnia and Herzegovina were confronted by the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Croatian Defence Council (HVO), reporting to the Bosniak-dominated central government and the Bosnian Croat leadership respectively. The HV sometimes deployed to Bosnia and Herzegovina to support the HVO.