Can the state budget change judges' salaries?
I read that now the amount of judges' remuneration is determined not by a special law on the judiciary and the status of judges, but by the living wage indicator, which is established annually by the Law on the State Budget, and it has remained at the level of 2102 hryvnias since 2021. I'm interested – is it even legal that every year through the state budget this amount is effectively "frozen" and the procedure for calculating judges' salaries is changed, although other guarantees are stipulated in the relevant law on the judiciary? Do the Verkhovna Rada and the state budget have such a right to influence this issue, or is it a direct violation of judicial independence, as reported in the news?