if you look at the mh17 flight patch for the last couple of weeks you will notice that they all flew different route (west or over the sea of azov). This downed plane took extra steps (100km to the east) to fly over the war zone, almost as if pilots wanted selfies with russian troops in the background.
Maybe it was (I didnt check other airlines), but this flight always flew at least 100km to the west.
Might be weather conditions this particular day pushing all the planes north east. I have zero idea about air traffic, is there an airport doing flight control for the region that would reroute all the planes over the effing war zone because of some rain clouds?
Perhaps I can point you to the link in the comment to which you've replied which plots the courses of flights of Malaysian and other airlines from the past weeks so that you can check?!
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/MAS17/history/20140717/10...