diff --git a/frontend/src/postBodyDisplay.test.ts b/frontend/src/postBodyDisplay.test.ts
index 743739697..d757a77b0 100644
--- a/frontend/src/postBodyDisplay.test.ts
+++ b/frontend/src/postBodyDisplay.test.ts
@@ -61,6 +61,28 @@ describe("splitPostBody", () => {
     ]);
   });
 
+  it("preserves nested HTML list depth as semantic indentation", () => {
+    expect(
+      splitPostBody("<ol><li>Parent<ol><li>Child</li></ol></li><li>Sibling</li></ol>"),
+    ).toEqual([
+      { kind: "text", text: "Parent" },
+      { kind: "text", text: "Child", indentLevel: 1 },
+      { kind: "text", text: "Sibling" },
+    ]);
+  });
+
+  it("preserves nested list depth when item text is wrapped in a block child", () => {
+    expect(
+      splitPostBody(
+        "<ol><li><p>Parent</p><ol><li><p>Child</p></li></ol></li><li><p>Sibling</p></li></ol>",
+      ),
+    ).toEqual([
+      { kind: "text", text: "Parent" },
+      { kind: "text", text: "Child", indentLevel: 1 },
+      { kind: "text", text: "Sibling" },
+    ]);
+  });
+
   it("labels HTML, Word, and OOXML footnotes in the fallback renderer", () => {
     expect(
       splitPostBody(
diff --git a/frontend/src/postBodyDisplay.ts b/frontend/src/postBodyDisplay.ts
index 1f69962e9..5c59470f1 100644
--- a/frontend/src/postBodyDisplay.ts
+++ b/frontend/src/postBodyDisplay.ts
@@ -143,11 +143,20 @@ function indentMarker(width: number): string {
 
 function stripHtmlTags(text: string): string {
   text = markFootnoteTags(text).replace(/<sup[^>]*>(.*?)<\/sup>/gi, "^$1");
+  let listDepth = 0;
   const withBoundaries = text
     .replace(BREAK_TAG, "\n")
     .replace(BLOCK_TAG, (tag) => {
-      if (/^<\//.test(tag)) return "\n\n";
-      return `\n\n${indentMarker(declaredIndentWidth(tag))}`;
+      const name = tag.match(/^<\/?\s*([a-z0-9:]+)/i)?.[1]?.toLowerCase() ?? "";
+      const closing = /^<\//.test(tag);
+      if (name === "ul" || name === "ol") {
+        if (closing) listDepth = Math.max(0, listDepth - 1);
+        else listDepth += 1;
+        return "\n\n";
+      }
+      if (closing) return "\n\n";
+      const nestedListIndent = !closing && listDepth > 0 ? Math.max(0, listDepth - 1) * 4 : 0;
+      return `\n\n${indentMarker(declaredIndentWidth(tag) + nestedListIndent)}`;
     })
     .replace(WORD_INDENT_TAG, (tag) => indentMarker(declaredIndentWidth(tag)));
   const withoutTags = withBoundaries.replace(HTML_TAG, (tag) => {