Most part of Ukrainians speaks Russian fluently because we were parts of one State 20 years ago and Russian was official language in USSR. Lviv is situated in Western Ukraine, so some of it's residents can also speak Polish because Poland is very close and in past centuries it was a time when part of Western Ukraine was polish territory. By the way Eastern Ukraine and Crimea are regions of very strong Russian influence and some of these regions residents speaks Russian much better then Ukrainian. Also I want to add that Russian, Belorussian and Ukrainian nations and cultures and languages are very-very close. For example I don't know Ukrainian language but I probably can understand it if ukrainians would speak slow and use simple words.

dont you worry! your friends in Lviv surely are able to understand your messages in russian. Ukrainians understand russian and russians understand ukrainian pretty well. We are two close brotherhood nations.

Осенью была в Киеве. Пока ждали экскурсию, беседовали сразу на двух языках: мы говорили на русском, украинцы - на украинском. Обсуждали темы образования и воспитания, а также роли государства в этом. Все всех прекрасно понимали :)

На Украине очень хорошо знают и понимают русский язык .