Given the rebels don't have an air force, what would be the point of giving the airliner a military escort?
A truck-mounted Buk battery has four missiles. Even if one of the escort fighters survives, he's not going to bother you unless he has a nuke.
To drop chaff if a missile was fired at the VIP civilian plane. Hopefully to divert the missile away from the civilian airplane that did not have chaff capabilities. We have a video that could be showing long strands of bundle chaff falling right after the crash. And the Ukranians had lost two planes in the past two days in that area.
A truck-mounted Buk battery has four missiles. Even if one of the escort fighters survives, he's not going to bother you unless he has a nuke.
Depends on if they ramped up their missile avoidance systems and what type of planes they sent for escort. A bundle chaff dispenser can operate from a pod mounted on a rail. And I am giving the Ukranians the benefit of the doubt here. Obviously one can imply they were just using the plane to take any missile fired their way. But we must assume they had good intentions. They are of the west.