@blackbird69
Nico claims that if airlines had known that air-to-air engagements were carried out over Eastern Ukraine, many airlines would have diverted outside Eastern Ukraine.
Some national regulators did issue a ban on flights e.g. FAA banned all US flights over Ukraine. Some airlines decided to avoid without waiting for regulator e.g. BA. Did Kiev keep commercial flights running to provide a human shield to their military operations as they already lost some a/c to SAMs? The notion that a commercial a/c would be safe above a certain FL but a target 1000' feet lower hardly instills confidence that it is a good short cut.