Vicarious denial: war crimes and online deliberation in Serbia for and against Ukraine

Violence in distant conflicts can foster solidarity across borders, mediated by partisanship, identities, and ideology. But, attitudes towards a society’s own war legacies may also shape reactions to war crimes endured by others. We analyse Serbian news outlet readers’ comments responding to reports of Russia’s atrocities in Ukraine. We observe vicarious denial, as some readers denied Russian atrocities, evoking a sense of exclusive Serbian victimhood related to the Yugoslav wars and blame of the West. Yet, other readers challenged them, expressing solidarity with Ukrainian victims. Our research highlights transnational dynamics of war crimes denial and its contention, complementing domestically oriented explanations.