People have an incredible ability to disregard whatever facts don’t fit into their beliefs.

Let’s consider what we know:

  1. The plane was shot down in an area controlled by Ukrainian rebels
  2. Rebels have been shooting down planes, including two in the 24 hours
  3. Rebels have posted photos of recently-acquired surface-to-air missiles capable of shooting down a plane above 10,000 meters
  4. Rebels may have already taken responsibility for shooting down a plane today, which they thought was a military transport. Those reports are being deleted.
  5. The Ukrainian military hasn’t been shooting at planes because it has total air superiority

The evidence is circumstantial but it’s convincing.

Naturally you have conspiracy theorists saying the Ukrainian military shot it down so they could blame the rebels. That’s a totally predictable but you need to prove it and good luck with that.

Now, Interfax is citing an unidentified source saying Ukraine may have tried to target Putin’s plane. That’s absurd on so many levels. First off, there’s no way Putin would put himself in that kind of danger. Second, Russia would be able to sort out if that was the case and would bomb Ukraine back to the stone ages if that was the case.