diff --git a/src/basic/time-util.c b/src/basic/time-util.c
index 837948c253..a70fc41d1a 100644
--- a/src/basic/time-util.c
+++ b/src/basic/time-util.c
@@ -1277,6 +1277,10 @@ bool timezone_is_valid(const char *name, int log_level) {
         if (isempty(name))
                 return false;
 
+        /* Always accept "UTC" as valid timezone, since it's the fallback, even if user has no timezones installed. */
+        if (streq(name, "UTC"))
+                return true;
+
         if (name[0] == '/')
                 return false;