What is more widely spoken in the Baltic countries: Russian, Ukrainian, or English?

So then, let's look to official statistics.

Lithuania - According to the Lithuanian population census of 2001, about 84% of the country's population speak Lithuanian as their native language, 8.2% are native speakers of Russian and 5.8% of Polish. More than 60% are fluent in Russian, while only about 16% say they can speak English.

Latvia - In the 2000 census, 37.5% of the population listed Russian as their mother tongue, whereas Latvian was recorded as the mother tongue for 58.2%. Latvian was spoken as a second language by 20.8% of the population, and 43.7% spoke Russian as a second language. While it is now required that all school students learn Latvian, most schools also include English and either German or Russian in their curricula. The English language is widely accepted in Latvia especially in business and tourism.

Estonia - looking at the languages of Estonia, aside from Estonian, the official language, 66% speak Russian, 46% English and 22% German. There is also some Finnish spoken.

Until 1991, Russian was taught as a compulsory language in all three, so naturally there are a lot of people who still speak it, especially among the older age groups.

In 2011 I went through the Baltics - Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

For the record, I learned a couple of words in their local languages, and had a few Russian words in my vocabulary from past travel.

As it happens, English was pretty well spoken, especially among the younger crowd. A bit harder in Lithuania, but very easy in the other two. Admittedly these were the capital cities, and it's harder in small towns usually. But even at the cinema in Riga, the movie was in English with Latvian and Russian subtitles.

That is true that relationships are a little cold, but I didn't notice any open hostility while traveling to Baltic countries. Since people there have different attitude to Russian language (some may consider it as language of their oppressors), I try by default to start conversation in English (it is spoken at sufficient level by many people), if the person I wish to speak to starts conversation in Russian, or expresses that he/she prefers Russian, I use Russian. Source: I am Russian who traveled to different Baltic countries.

In Russia, there are still a lot of people who don't understand English for good. Ukrainian language is better here, but also not perfect. In Baltic, Russian may be problematic inside youth. ">30" people mostly can to use this language.

I think best choice is Russian language. English as a second.