Russian soldiers have to buy their own radios and phones in battle, but the systems are incompatible and proving useless: reports

• A Russian mercenary group listed equipment failings that troops are suffering on the front line. 
• The group, known as Rusich, said soldiers were buying their own communications equipment. 
• Russia is battling Ukrainian forces as they seek to breach their defensive positions across a wide front line. 

Russian troops are resorting to buying their own communications devices which are incompatible with one another as they face equipment shortages on the front line, a think tank report said.