Putin has been irresponsibly arming the rebels . So yes he is indirectly responsible for what happened. Doesn't mean that he directly ordered or wanted a shoot down of a civilian air craft.
- and still ignore that the airplane flew over an ACTIVE COMBAT ZONE.
The "active combat zone" was not at 33k feet and there was no danger in flying over the area at that altitude until the rebels acquired Buk Missiles. Blame the flight plan all you want for not understanding the new danger, however the primary blame goes to the idiots who acquired Buk missiles, didn't give warning to civilian aircraft and then irresponsibly shot a Buk missile at a civilian airplane carry and killing almost 300 people.
“The “active combat zone” was not at 33k feet and there was no danger in flying over the area at that altitude until the rebels acquired Buk Missiles.”
Trying to thread the needle when it comes to threats in an active war zone is quite risky even for combatants (their mortars were only supposed to reach 6km, why are they reaching us here at 7km? - maybe they got upgraded hardware?), and it’s IDIOTIC to try that stunt with, I guess, THOUSANDS of innocent passengers every day. So hopefully they all learn a lesson here.