diff --git a/src/util/vircgroup.c b/src/util/vircgroup.c
index e4675a0977760d8fb20a3fb4bfbf356ddbf2f1c4..268e4013e390c3878586bc98c6c6dd982944b189 100644
--- a/src/util/vircgroup.c
+++ b/src/util/vircgroup.c
@@ -1082,7 +1082,7 @@ virCgroupEnableMissingControllers(char *path,
                          &tmp) < 0)
             goto cleanup;
 
-        if (virCgroupMakeGroup(parent, tmp, true, VIR_CGROUP_NONE) < 0) {
+        if (virCgroupMakeGroup(parent, tmp, true, VIR_CGROUP_SYSTEMD) < 0) {
             virCgroupFree(&tmp);
             goto cleanup;
         }
diff --git a/src/util/vircgroupbackend.h b/src/util/vircgroupbackend.h
index e58e327c68724c49e0d178e0cd1af744a6f48f26..a91719f89df055e94c3ad6257ec56060dd85dc1b 100644
--- a/src/util/vircgroupbackend.h
+++ b/src/util/vircgroupbackend.h
@@ -34,6 +34,9 @@ typedef enum {
                                        * attaching tasks
                                        */
     VIR_CGROUP_THREAD = 1 << 1, /* cgroup v2 handles threads differently */
+    VIR_CGROUP_SYSTEMD = 1 << 2, /* with systemd and cgroups v2 we cannot
+                                  * manually enable controllers that systemd
+                                  * doesn't know how to delegate */
 } virCgroupBackendFlags;
 
 typedef enum {
diff --git a/src/util/vircgroupv2.c b/src/util/vircgroupv2.c
index b3297dbb1329229be50e17852696b7e7cbadd9ea..9d8a38925ad08999eaa0e28ddb539e30155adf8c 100644
--- a/src/util/vircgroupv2.c
+++ b/src/util/vircgroupv2.c
@@ -395,6 +395,11 @@ virCgroupV2MakeGroup(virCgroupPtr parent ATTRIBUTE_UNUSED,
     VIR_AUTOFREE(char *) path = NULL;
     int controller;
 
+    if (flags & VIR_CGROUP_SYSTEMD) {
+        VIR_DEBUG("Running with systemd so we should not create cgroups ourselves.");
+        return 0;
+    }
+
     VIR_DEBUG("Make group %s", group->path);
 
     controller = virCgroupV2GetAnyController(group);