Encrypted milspec comms aren’t the standard in a massive war.
It’s weird but discord, signal and some mapping apps on smartphones are how this war is being fought.
It is standard in any modern military that is actually prepared for war. It's not like encrypted digital radio is some kind of fancy tech, either - it's readily available to civilians.
Ukraine in particular started working on a wholesale switch to encrypted Motorola radios shortly after the war began in 2014, and by now it's standard equipment across their forces. Russia, OTOH, started the war without a good solution, with patchwork of ad hoc solutions originating from enthusiasts in the units - e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrey_Morozov was a vocal proponent.
But smartphones are more than communications. You can also use them as artillery computers for firing solutions, for example. And while normally there would be a milspec solution for this purpose, those are usually designed with milspec artillery systems and munitions in mind, while both sides in this war are heavily reliant on stocks that are non-standard (to them) - Ukraine, obviously, with all the Western aid, but Russia also had to dig out a lot of old equipment that was not adequately handled. Apps are much easier to update for this purpose, so they're heavily used in practice (and, again, these are often grassroots developments, not something pushed top-down by brass).
I’d want to run military communications on a network my side controls
And I think a pretty much all published Ukrainian and Russian combat footage is vetted by their respective military (who would want to be court martialed for Reddit karma?).
They just take different approaches to what, when and were to release the footage.
I'm sure Russia's meat wave tactics have more of a role. If you're sending your troops in suicide missions, including guys without weapons and even in crutches, you're not exactly too keen in having them carrying mobile phones to document the experience or even, heavens forbid, survive by surrendering.
Are you sure it's a meme, though? There is plenty of footage out there, documenting meat wave tactics in 4k. Have you been living under a rock?
> Again ,if Ukrainians are being beaten by guy in crutches (...)
What's your definition of "being beaten"? Three years into Russia's 3-day invasion of Ukraine and Ukraine started invading and occupying Russian territory. Is this your definition of being beaten?