diff -rupN --no-dereference libxml2-v2.9.12/xmlsave.c libxml2-v2.9.12-new/xmlsave.c
--- libxml2-v2.9.12/xmlsave.c	2022-02-18 21:00:14.226540564 +0100
+++ libxml2-v2.9.12-new/xmlsave.c	2022-02-18 21:00:14.229540592 +0100
@@ -890,6 +890,13 @@ xmlNodeDumpOutputInternal(xmlSaveCtxtPtr
             break;
 
         case XML_ELEMENT_NODE:
+	    if ((cur != root) && (ctxt->format == 1) &&
+                (xmlIndentTreeOutput))
+		xmlOutputBufferWrite(buf, ctxt->indent_size *
+				     (ctxt->level > ctxt->indent_nr ?
+				      ctxt->indent_nr : ctxt->level),
+				     ctxt->indent);
+
             /*
              * Some users like lxml are known to pass nodes with a corrupted
              * tree structure. Fall back to a recursive call to handle this
@@ -900,13 +907,6 @@ xmlNodeDumpOutputInternal(xmlSaveCtxtPtr
                 break;
             }
 
-	    if ((ctxt->level > 0) && (ctxt->format == 1) &&
-                (xmlIndentTreeOutput))
-		xmlOutputBufferWrite(buf, ctxt->indent_size *
-				     (ctxt->level > ctxt->indent_nr ?
-				      ctxt->indent_nr : ctxt->level),
-				     ctxt->indent);
-
             xmlOutputBufferWrite(buf, 1, "<");
             if ((cur->ns != NULL) && (cur->ns->prefix != NULL)) {
                 xmlOutputBufferWriteString(buf, (const char *)cur->ns->prefix);