In the deeply divided Kosovo city of Mitrovica, fighting in Ukraine has created another wedge between Serbs and ethnic Albanians, where the conflict has stirred up bitter memories of their own war.

North of the Ibar River, where the city’s 20,000 Serbs live, a few pro-Russian murals have appeared in recent months trumpeting the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Serbs are for Russians, for freedom and victory,” reads beneath a tank image and the letter Z, the ubiquitous symbol of the Russian military since the beginning of the war.

For many Serbs, Russia has long been a close ally and friend, taking their shared Orthodox faith and intertwined history as a source of pride.

That long history and shared hatred of the NATO alliance — which bombed Serbian forces during the war in Kosovo in the late 1990s — has made the decision to side with Russia a natural choice.

“I support both Russia and Putin,” Branka Sofric, a 20-year-old literature student, told AFP. Russian President Vladimir Putin is “a man who fights for his people”.

“You know, [Putin] is probably right because he did it,” retiree Dragoljub Kovac, 75, said of the invasion.

Murals often serve as public platforms for ultra-nationalists across much of the Balkans, where war veterans, political slogans and football clubs are glorified and threatening messages are broadcast against perceived enemies.

For years, a mural in the Serbian enclave of Mitrovica has proclaimed “Kosovo is Serbia, Crimea is Russia” — a common refrain chanted at pro-Russian rallies in Serbia since the outbreak of war.

But on the other side of the bridge over the Ibar, where most of the 80,000-strong ethnic Albanian community lives, there are no feelings of brotherly love for Russia.

“You don’t see a ‘Z’ here,” Ekrem Vllahiu, a 24-year-old cigarette salesman, told AFP. “Why? Because it’s a damn letter.”

The bridge separating the communities has been a regular scene of clashes after the 1999 war between Serb forces and Kosovo’s Albanian majority, which left 13,000 dead and ended after a Washington-led NATO bombing raid.

NATO troops are still stationed in Kosovo and continue to patrol the streets along with local police in Mitrovica to ward off future unrest.

On the southern and Albanian sides of the city, the US flag is ubiquitous and official buildings often bear the symbols of NATO and the European Union.

“Justice is on Ukraine’s side,” said Dan Syla, an 81-year-old retired firefighter. “They are suffering what we have suffered ourselves,” he added, referring to the war with Serbia.

However, Kyiv never officially recognized Kosovo’s independence from Serbia, which was declared in 2008, and is now accepted by more than 100 countries around the world.

But since the war began, the government in the capital, Pristina, has joined in sanctions against Russia, welcomed Ukrainians fleeing the war, trained demining teams and even hosted a film festival, usually held in the Black Sea port of Odessa.

Experts argue that at the heart of the recent row are wildly different feelings towards the US and the role it plays in international affairs.

“Support for Russia is a manifestation of anti-Americanism. The perception of Serbs is that Kosovo was taken away from them because of the United States,” said Nexhmedin Spahiu, a professor of political science in the Kosovar capital, Pristina.

“For Albanians, the United States represents freedom,” he added.

Syla, the retired firefighter in Mitrovica, agrees.

“God first, America second,” he gushed.

Miodrag Milicevic – the director of Aktiv, a non-profit organization in northern Serbia’s Mitrovica – believes the current conflict has only further exacerbated the “two very different realities” in the divided city, which is attributed to the “absence of any dialogue” between them is the communities.

“In such an environment, frankly, regardless of our community, our prospects are not very good,” he added.

For a 28-year-old Serbian student named Uros, who describes himself more as “anti-Western” than “Russophile,” the choice in the recent war is easy.

“As long as a nation is universally declared evil, I’m on their side,” he told AFP.