Your Armenian friend is a moron. Ukrainians have a simple way out - to submit and forget about their grudges or die. They had a chance in independence and failed at it badly.
They will win, the way I see it. They’ve been independent for 30 years, despite a long-standing campaign by Russia to absorb them piecemeal. Russia had a chance to join the 21st Century and failed at it. They might yet turn around. My Armenian friend, btw, IS a nuclear physicist, one-time major Moscow bank executive, and nobody’s fool.