The Croatian government has adopted a draft decision on deploying up to 10 Croatian soldiers in the NATO Response Force (NRF), the defence ministry stated on Thursday as Russia began an invasion of Ukraine.

The draft decision has been forwarded to President Zoran Milanovic, the supreme commander of the armed forces, for adoption, the press release said.

According to Defence Minister Mario Banozic, Croatian troops will be part of the “Very High Readiness Joint Task Force” (VJTF) within the alliance’s Response Force, which means they will be ready within a few days.

During the Prague summit in 2002, NATO decided on the establishment of its Response Force, and the Wales summit in 2014 decided on the set-up of VJTF.

In 2015, Croatia’s parliament adopted decisions which paved the way for the deployment of Croatian soldiers in those units.

Earlier on Thursday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that the alliance had activated its defence plans on the deployment of additional forces in NATO’s eastern members.

“Today, the North Atlantic Council decided to activate our defence plans, at the request of our top military commander, General Tod Wolters,” Stoltenberg said and added that he has “called a virtual Summit of NATO leaders tomorrow, to address the way forward.”