A mouse that a cat is playing with gets a bite in, once in a while.

It only takes one bite - precisely in the balls.
You know that's actually a good allegory. Only, hundreds thousands of Ukrainian lives were bet on a chance that the mouse will defeat the cat by biting the cat in the balls. Of course instead now we see the mouse being slowly torn apart limb by limb, we find one organizer is loosing interest and saying just to let them fight it out for a bit longer, and the other organizers were just in it to piss off the cat, so they just continue to encourage the mouse. I can understand all of the rolls except for Ukraine, how leadership can volunteer so many souls for such unlikely outcome?
Allies won't impose new sanctions on Russia because of Ukraine's refusal to mobilize at age 18, Zelensky says
Ukraine's Western allies are not imposing new sanctions on Russia in part because of Kyiv's refusal to lower the mobilization age to 18, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with Valasz Online published on June 10.
With the start of the full-scale invasion, Ukraine updated its mobilization legislation and lowered the minimum age for compulsory military service from 27 to 25.
Yet, some partners, including the U.S., still criticize Kyiv for setting the age threshold too high.
Better get to work and come up (make up) better reasons against negotiations, curators are now asking you to gather 18yr old souls for busification.