[Uncle Chip]

And then we have this:

Hours before the crash, Russia had announced its own airspace restrictions near eastern Ukraine, closing below 32,000 feet the route Flight 17 would have taken through Russia.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/07/17/world/europe/maps-of-the-crash-of-malaysian-airlines-flight-mh17.html?_r=0

Did the Russians give the SAM operators an okay to shoot down anything below 32,000 feet??

[McGruff]

Russia had announced its own airspace restrictions near eastern Ukraine, closing below 32,000 feet the route Flight 17 would have taken through Russia

Interesting but another question would be were the Ukrainian Flight Control operators aware of this and why then did they direct the plane to that course.