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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Take two appellate courts as an example: the Northern Commercial Court of Appeal — the staff should be 75 judges, in fact from 2022 through 2025 inclusive fewer than 45 were working. Kyiv Court of Appeal: staff – 145, in 2022 there were 92 judges actually working, from 23 through 25 the number fell to 62 judges. Across the appellate court system about 53,4% of positions remain vacant, but compared with the broader problems of the system these are still not terrible figures. Did the number of cases per judge fall by half? No, it doubled or tripled because of the mass resignation of judges. When the actual number of judges falls, the number of cases does not decrease. In 2025 local and appellate courts received 4,82 million cases, and courts reviewed 4,53 million. However, due to the shortage of judges the backlog of unreviewed cases in just one year grew by 28% and exceeded 1,15 million. All the workload fell on those who remained — the judges, their assistants, and court staff. Meanwhile the overall level of judicial funding for 2026 was set at 59,4% of the need; the same situation is fixed in the budget declaration for 27–28. Previously courts were funded based on staff numbers and could redirect savings from vacancies to the needs of the court apparatus. Later the approach changed and money began to be allocated only for the actual number of judges. And since 2021 the statutory calculated amount for judicial remuneration has been frozen by law, despite increases in the real subsistence minimum and inflation. Video of the day Since then we have consistently under-received about 30–35% of salaries, and the apparatus as a whole is below the dignity threshold. For years courts have not been funded according to the staff number of judges both at the level of individual courts and nationwide. How much money was saved this way on judges’ remuneration, supplements, and staffing shortages? A question that still has no public answer. Moreover, last year no funds were allocated in the budget for new judges who, after extremely difficult competitions, took the oath. Overall the situation is at an impasse: judges and staff work for 3–5 people, Ukraine’s courts employ a little more than 4 thousand judges when the calculated need is 11,5 thousand — that is a deficit of about 65%. 11,8 judges per 100 thousand population — half less than the European average. More than 2 thousand positions are vacant from the established staff numbers; in some courts literally one judge works, and elsewhere no one at all. The caseload per judge in large Ukrainian cities is about 1500–3000 cases per year versus 200–300 in Europe, i.e., 5–10 times higher. The European Commission states that the Ukrainian judicial system suffers from a serious staffing shortage, high workload, and a constant lack of financial and technical resources, which negatively affects its effectiveness. According to the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine, as of the end of 2025, 80 courts in Ukraine operate with 50% or fewer judges of their staff number; a year earlier there were 66. In 20 local general courts justice is administered by only 1 (one) judge. These figures are not new to judicial authorities and have been known for years, but unfortunately they do not often reach the wider public. Today the executive branch tells us directly: there is no money for salaries, and there is no money for payments ordered by courts where violations of the law have already been established. A separate budget program for enforcing court decisions in favor of judges, staff members, and other employees of the justice system in 2025 was financed at only 0,6% of the need, and for 2026 it was about 0,4% of the total need of 2,3 billion UAH, while 10,0 million UAH was allocated. At the same time, the judicial system paradoxically demonstrates that it is an effective generator of revenue for the budget while being forced to beg for basic needs. In 2025 courts collected 5,7 billion UAH in court fees against a planned 3,6 billion — the plan was fulfilled at 159%. But instead of investing in digitization, AI, or infrastructure development, these over-plan funds go to sheer survival: payment of basic salaries, payroll contributions, utilities, purchase of paper, stamps, envelopes, and covering other current court needs. That is, courts pay a quarter of the budget for their functioning through fees from citizens and businesses. Meanwhile judges themselves, as citizens of the country, cannot enforce a court decision they won because no funds were allocated in the budget for that. The judiciary is the only branch of government that generates a significant part of its own funding (5,7 billion in fees on a budget of 21 billion), and as of July 2026 already 7 billion had been accumulated, with an expected total for the year of 5 billion. Thus underfunding the courts is not savings but effectively the seizure of revenues created by citizens who pay for access to justice. 25 June Law No. 4905-IX (on improving declarations of integrity) came into force. It eliminates the artificially lowered subsistence minimum used to calculate judges’ salaries of 2102 UAH, which had been kept since 2021. Finally a single lawful calculation base returns — the real subsistence minimum for able-bodied persons, which in 2026 is already 3328 UAH. This step removes a long-standing collision and dubious budgetary constraints. But the financial justification for this bill stated it “will not require additional expenditures”; moreover, when the judiciary appealed, the Ministry of Finance simply replied: “the budget law has greater force, so not this year, but maybe next.” Today, when it comes to implementing the law for those working for two or three people, we are again told: there is no money. Maybe it is time to ask how much has already been saved at the expense of the judiciary over the years of vacancy-related savings? By the most modest estimates it is tens of billions. Underfunding of the system in 2025 amounted to 14,1 billion UAH, and in 2026 to 15,5 billion UAH. Over two years the state “saved” almost 30 billion hryvnias on justice, and how much for 5? However, the state has still not disclosed exactly how much money was saved due to years of vacancies, unpaid salaries, supplements, and related contributions. That figure must be publicly calculated by the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine and the Ministry of Finance. In practice the budget gap is right now being closed at the expense of those who cannot declare a strike, since judges are prohibited from striking. Strategically, however, this leads to the destruction of the third branch of government. In conditions of a full-scale war the state’s budgetary possibilities are limited and defense funding is an unconditional priority. However, justice also belongs to the state’s basic infrastructure, without which protection of rights, economic stability, and European integration are impossible. The European Commission’s report on Ukraine’s progress and the Roadmap for the rule of law explicitly state that staffing shortages and chronic underfunding of courts undermine Ukraine’s ability to ensure adequate access to justice. Texts published in the “Opinion” section do not necessarily reflect the position of UNIAN’s editorial board. 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