Those SAMs are deadly travelling a mile a second.
Why anycommander in a war zone would think to shoot at a plane travelling at 33,000 feet along a known commercial flight path that is moving out of his airspace is beyond comprehension.
......”Why any commander in a war zone would think to shoot at a plane travelling at 33,000 feet along a known commercial flight path...”
Any commander in a war zone would not have a problem firing at a plane in it’s airspace ‘in an active war zone’.
“Why anycommander in a war zone would think to shoot at a plane travelling at 33,000 feet along a known commercial flight path”
You are a barely trained rebel, sitting in a metal coffin, in a city you were sent to because Kiev has been bombing it heavily by air. You are (likely) the “hero” that shot down at least an AN-26 a couple of days ago, and likely a couple of SU’s that Kiev won’t admit went down, because there isn’t any video of it they cannot deny.
Your sight range is approx 42KM, and the target comes directly over Kiev-held Dnipropetrovsk, where Kiev is launching other airstrikes from. You know Kiev is launching airstrikes to try and save the large Army that is trapped, out of food and fuel, and already falling apart in Southern Donetsk/Luhansk.
FOG OF WAR....
Do we know if Kiev has already used faked sqwawks to cover other airstrikes? Do we know if they have used Commercial Aircraft profiles before to cover strike aircraft??
Lots of unknowns here, but I still fall to my original thoughts.
To establish air supremacy after achieving air superiority, and air dominance if neither are recognized by his adversary.