diff --git a/SPECS/systemd/mariner-2-do-not-default-zstd-journal-files-for-backwards-compatibility.patch b/SPECS/systemd/mariner-2-do-not-default-zstd-journal-files-for-backwards-compatibility.patch
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..c7a045659d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/SPECS/systemd/mariner-2-do-not-default-zstd-journal-files-for-backwards-compatibility.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+diff -urpN a/src/libsystemd/sd-journal/journal-file.c b/src/libsystemd/sd-journal/journal-file.c
+--- a/src/libsystemd/sd-journal/journal-file.c	2022-01-18 11:35:43.000000000 +0000
++++ b/src/libsystemd/sd-journal/journal-file.c	2023-10-19 19:15:42.093295820 +0000
+@@ -3254,7 +3254,7 @@ int journal_file_open(
+                 .flags = flags,
+                 .writable = (flags & O_ACCMODE) != O_RDONLY,
+ 
+-#if HAVE_ZSTD
++#if HAVE_ZSTD && 0 /* For Mariner 2, disable journal compression with zstd for backwards compatibility */
+                 .compress_zstd = compress,
+ #elif HAVE_LZ4
+                 .compress_lz4 = compress,
diff --git a/SPECS/systemd/systemd.spec b/SPECS/systemd/systemd.spec
index 7d7ea46e0c..5106740bf6 100644
--- a/SPECS/systemd/systemd.spec
+++ b/SPECS/systemd/systemd.spec
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 Summary:        Systemd-250
 Name:           systemd
 Version:        250.3
-Release:        17%{?dist}
+Release:        18%{?dist}
 License:        LGPLv2+ AND GPLv2+ AND MIT
 Vendor:         Microsoft Corporation
 Distribution:   Mariner
@@ -27,6 +27,8 @@ Patch5:         backport-helper-util-macros.patch
 Patch6:         CVE-2022-4415.patch
 Patch7:         serve-stale-0001-resolved-added-serve-stale-feature-implementation-of.patch
 Patch8:         serve-stale-0002-resolved-Initialize-until_valid-while-storing-negati.patch
+# Patch9 should be dropped for mariner 3
+Patch9:         mariner-2-do-not-default-zstd-journal-files-for-backwards-compatibility.patch
 BuildRequires:  audit-devel
 BuildRequires:  cryptsetup-devel
 BuildRequires:  docbook-dtd-xml
@@ -49,6 +51,7 @@ BuildRequires:  python3-jinja2
 BuildRequires:  tpm2-tss-devel
 BuildRequires:  util-linux-devel
 BuildRequires:  xz-devel
+BuildRequires:  zstd-devel
 Requires:       %{name}-rpm-macros = %{version}-%{release}
 Requires:       glib
 Requires:       kmod
@@ -134,7 +137,7 @@ meson  --prefix %{_prefix}                                            \
        -Dlibcryptsetup=true                                           \
        -Dgcrypt=true                                                  \
        -Dlz4=true                                                     \
-       -Dzstd=false                                                   \
+       -Dzstd=true                                                    \
        -Ddbuspolicydir=%{_sysconfdir}/dbus-1/system.d                 \
        -Ddbussessionservicedir=%{_datadir}/dbus-1/services            \
        -Ddbussystemservicedir=%{_datadir}/dbus-1/system-services      \
@@ -283,6 +286,9 @@ fi
 %files lang -f %{name}.lang
 
 %changelog
+* Thu Oct 19 2023 Dan Streetman <ddstreet@ieee.org> - 250.3-18
+- Enable zstd support for journalctl, but force journald to not use zstd to keep backwards compatibility
+
 * Fri Jul 07 2023 Dan Streetman <ddstreet@ieee.org> - 250.3-17
 - Add support to systemd-resolved to serve stale dns data