diff --git a/net/ipv4/nexthop.c b/net/ipv4/nexthop.c
index c2b7d43d92b0..f5f4369c131c 100644
--- a/net/ipv4/nexthop.c
+++ b/net/ipv4/nexthop.c
@@ -1065,7 +1065,7 @@ out:
 
 /* rtnl */
 /* remove all nexthops tied to a device being deleted */
-static void nexthop_flush_dev(struct net_device *dev)
+static void nexthop_flush_dev(struct net_device *dev, unsigned long event)
 {
 	unsigned int hash = nh_dev_hashfn(dev->ifindex);
 	struct net *net = dev_net(dev);
@@ -1077,6 +1077,10 @@ static void nexthop_flush_dev(struct net_device *dev)
 		if (nhi->fib_nhc.nhc_dev != dev)
 			continue;
 
+		if (nhi->reject_nh &&
+		    (event == NETDEV_DOWN || event == NETDEV_CHANGE))
+			continue;
+
 		remove_nexthop(net, nhi->nh_parent, NULL);
 	}
 }
@@ -1794,11 +1798,11 @@ static int nh_netdev_event(struct notifier_block *this,
 	switch (event) {
 	case NETDEV_DOWN:
 	case NETDEV_UNREGISTER:
-		nexthop_flush_dev(dev);
+		nexthop_flush_dev(dev, event);
 		break;
 	case NETDEV_CHANGE:
 		if (!(dev_get_flags(dev) & (IFF_RUNNING | IFF_LOWER_UP)))
-			nexthop_flush_dev(dev);
+			nexthop_flush_dev(dev, event);
 		break;
 	case NETDEV_CHANGEMTU:
 		info_ext = ptr;