In the city of Mariupol, just 12 miles from the front line in eastern Ukraine, the mood was wary but calm as people swam in the sea and held barbecues to mark epiphany.
“I’m calmer than soldiers on the frontline. If we’re hit by a missile, we have no chance. Where should we run? To Russia? There’s nobody waiting for us there. We’re tired of being afraid since 2014,” said Iryna Prudkova, a local activist who supports Ukrainian government forces.
“I’m concerned about my kids in Kyiv. If Russia uses Iskanders against Kyiv I`m concerned more about my two daughters in Kyiv than about myself here in Mariupol.”
The missiles’ deployment comes as the US warned Russia could seek to attack Kyiv, rather than the eastern Donbas region where fighting between government forces and Kremlin-backed separatists has been focused until now.
A threat to Kyiv could be designed to pressure Ukraine not to concentrate its forces in the east.
“Don’t let Moscow divide you. That means leaders inside and outside Ukraine’s government have to put aside their differences in the shared national interest, and work together to prepare for difficult days,” Mr Blinken said as he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv.
“I strongly, strongly hope that we can keep this on a diplomatic and peaceful path, but ultimately, that’s going to be President Putin’s decision.”
Russia refused to back down, insisting there can be no meaningful talks unless the West agrees to its demands.
Those include guarantees Nato will stop any expansion eastwards to Ukraine, other former Soviet states or Finland and Sweden, and that it will not deploy weapons on their territory.
“We see the threat of Ukraine becoming ever more integrated in Nato without even acquiring a formal status of a Nato member state,” Sergei Ryabkov, the Russian deputy foreign minister, said on Wednesday.
“This is something that goes right to the centre of Russia’s national security interests.”
Mr Blinken said he would not be carrying a formal response to Russia’s demands when he meets Mr Lavrov in Geneva on Friday.
“I won’t be presenting a paper at that time to Foreign Minister Lavrov,” he said. “We need to see where we are and see if there remain opportunities to pursue the diplomacy and pursue the dialogue.
Before his meeting with Mr Lavrov, Mr Blinken is set to hold talks with the UK, France and Germany in Berlin on Thursday as he seeks to shore up the Western alliance.
