In Ukrainian social networks, there are widespread reports that allegedly three years ago the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Viktor Muzhenko was fired to "prevent him from applying for Ukraine's accession to NATO." The contributors claim that Zelenskyy deliberately did this "while Muzhenko was on his way to the summit", "so that he would not have the authority". The message became viral in the context of the public signing by the president of Ukraine's application to join NATO in an accelerated manner. This message is fake. The summit of the leaders of the member countries of the Alliance was indeed held in December 2019. However, Viktor Muzhenko could not be a participant, because he was dismissed from the post of Chief of the General Staff by the decree of the President of Ukraine № 301/2019 dated May 21, 2019. Therefore, he could neither represent the country at the summit nor submit any documents on its behalf.

Viktor Muzhenko confirmed in a StopFake comment that he was in Brussels in May 2019. At that time, a meeting of the NATO Military Committee was held, in particular in the Ukraine-NATO format (May 21). At this meeting, Muzhenko was supposed to represent Ukraine (AFU), but on the eve of the meeting, the Decree of the President of Ukraine was signed on his dismissal. By the decision of the Military Committee, Muzhenko was allowed to make a speech as a representative of Ukraine. There was no mention of an application to join NATO.

In January 2019, there was another meeting of the military leaders of the member countries of the Alliance, in which Muzhenko took part - the meeting of the NATO Military Committee in Brussels. At that time, Petro Poroshenko was still the president of Ukraine. However, there was no discussion of applying to join NATO at this meeting either. Russian propaganda tries to devalue, ridicule, and discredit Ukraine's desire to become a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Russian media and anonymous Telegram channels actively reacted to the statement of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy about applying for accelerated accession to NATO with numerous fakes and manipulations.