Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday said Moscow rejects Ukraine’s latest draft peace proposal and claimed Western powers are trying to undermine negotiations between the two sides. After the “Ukrainian side presented its draft agreements to our negotiators,” Russian officials claimed it was a “clear departure from key provisions that were committed to at the meeting in Istanbul” last week, Lavrov said, according to state-run media Sputnik News. Lavrov did not elaborate on the details of Ukraine’s draft proposal, but he said that “it offers vague formulations about some kind of ‘effective control’, and ‘as of 23 February,'” without elaborating. Feb. 23 refers to the day before Russia invaded Ukraine. “It’s likely that at the next stage, the Ukrainian side will ask for the withdrawal of troops, and pile up more and more preconditions. This plan is understandable, but it is unacceptable,” he remarked. A day earlier, the minister …