To move on from the crisis, an announcement and a public display were needed. On Saturday, August 2, Ukrainian authorities tried to put an end to the country's most severe political crisis since the war began by announcing the arrests of several corrupt officials, as part of an investigation into a vast system of bribery connected to military procurement contracts. The communications operation came at just the right time, two days after July 31, when a law was passed restoring the independent status of two anti-corruption agencies that President Volodymyr Zelensky had sought to subjugate nine days earlier, on July 22.

Footage released by the Ukrainian presidency showed Zelensky standing alongside the heads of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office. The meeting gave Zelensky an opportunity to both reaffirm the importance of the two agencies' independent status and present some concrete results: A lawmaker from his own party had been caught, as well as a former regional governor. "There can be no tolerance for corruption," the Ukrainian president said.

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