China and Ukraine Post - why so long?

Over the past couple of months, I noticed that parcels from China to Ukraine began to go very long. It used to take a couple of weeks, sometimes a little longer, if something is cheap in an ordinary envelope. But everything that was more expensive than 50 bucks reached me in 14-18 days. What happened? The answer is under the cut.

There were two reasons for the large mail delays. The first is the recent ban on sending lithium batteries by Hong Kong Post. And after that, according to rumors, such parcels began to be wrapped at customs and the China post also stopped accepting them. A bunch of parcels returned to sellers, which for some time disrupted the normal operation of both store warehouses and China's mail stores. Now lithium batteries are shipped by Singapore Post.

But there is a second reason. Until March 2013, mail from China was sent by direct flight Beijing - Kiev, operated by Aerosvit. After the bankruptcy of the company, this flight also disappeared. Therefore, mail now goes in very interesting ways. For example, this is what the track looks like from intmail.183.com.cn/itemtrace_cn.jsp :

RB788 * CN 2013 收寄 局 收寄 深圳 市 国际 大宗 邮件 处理 中心 乌克兰 20131020 1434
RB788 * CN 2013 出口 总 包 互 封 开 拆 深圳国际 乌克兰 20131020 1824
RB788 * CN 2013 出口 总 包 直 封 封 发 深圳 国际 乌克兰 20131021 0718
RB788 * CN 2013 已 收到 PVG 乌克兰 20131024 0000
RB788 * CN 2013 交 航 PVG 乌克兰 20131025 0957
RB788 * CN 2013 已 预订 PVG 乌克兰 20131027 0000
RB788 * CN 2013 启运 PVG 乌克兰 20131027 0000
RB788 * CN 2013 启运 FRA 乌克兰 20131027 0000
RB788 * CN 2013 已 交付 MXP 乌克兰 20131028 0000
RB788 * CN 2013 运输 路程 结束 BUD 乌克兰 20131028 0000
RB788 * CN 2013 已 预订 FRA 乌克兰 20131028 0000
RB788 * CN 2013 运输 路程 结束 OTP 乌克兰 20131028 0000
RB788 * CN 2013 已 交付 VIE 乌克兰 20131028 0000

Here you can see that the package was on the route Pudong - Frankfurt - Milan - Budapest - again Frankfurt - Bucharest - Vienna - Kiev (already from the Ukrposhta track)