diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index b27d38be770..911df9cabb2 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -357,6 +357,11 @@ CHANGES WITH 246 in spe:
           The optional positional argument to "systemctl reboot" is now
           being deprecated in favor of this option.
 
+        * Support for the .include syntax in unit files has been removed. The
+          concept has been obsolete for 6 years and we started warning about
+          its pending removal 2 years ago (also see NEWS file below). It's
+          finally gone now.
+
 CHANGES WITH 245:
 
         * A new tool "systemd-repart" has been added, that operates as an
diff --git a/man/systemd.unit.xml b/man/systemd.unit.xml
index cdd7572addb..8c0815488b1 100644
--- a/man/systemd.unit.xml
+++ b/man/systemd.unit.xml
@@ -226,9 +226,6 @@
     <filename>foo-.service.d/10-override.conf</filename> would override
     <filename>service.d/10-override.conf</filename>.</para>
 
-    <!-- Note that we do not document .include here, as we consider it mostly obsolete, and want
-         people to use .d/ drop-ins instead. -->
-
     <para>Note that while systemd offers a flexible dependency system
     between units it is recommended to use this functionality only
     sparingly and instead rely on techniques such as bus-based or
diff --git a/src/core/load-fragment.c b/src/core/load-fragment.c
index 49fdcaff7e1..517813986b9 100644
--- a/src/core/load-fragment.c
+++ b/src/core/load-fragment.c
@@ -4864,7 +4864,7 @@ int unit_load_fragment(Unit *u) {
                         r = config_parse(u->id, fragment, f,
                                          UNIT_VTABLE(u)->sections,
                                          config_item_perf_lookup, load_fragment_gperf_lookup,
-                                         CONFIG_PARSE_ALLOW_INCLUDE,
+                                         0,
                                          u,
                                          NULL);
                         if (r == -ENOEXEC)
diff --git a/src/fuzz/fuzz-unit-file.c b/src/fuzz/fuzz-unit-file.c
index 34f59a44372..c0661433a31 100644
--- a/src/fuzz/fuzz-unit-file.c
+++ b/src/fuzz/fuzz-unit-file.c
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ int LLVMFuzzerTestOneInput(const uint8_t *data, size_t size) {
                         name, name, f,
                         UNIT_VTABLE(u)->sections,
                         config_item_perf_lookup, load_fragment_gperf_lookup,
-                        CONFIG_PARSE_ALLOW_INCLUDE,
+                        0,
                         u,
                         NULL);
 
diff --git a/src/shared/conf-parser.c b/src/shared/conf-parser.c
index 21226573428..0a59f19e2a6 100644
--- a/src/shared/conf-parser.c
+++ b/src/shared/conf-parser.c
@@ -159,7 +159,7 @@ static int parse_line(
                 char *l,
                 void *userdata) {
 
-        char *e, *include;
+        char *e;
 
         assert(filename);
         assert(line > 0);
@@ -173,35 +173,6 @@ static int parse_line(
         if (*l == '\n')
                 return 0;
 
-        include = first_word(l, ".include");
-        if (include) {
-                _cleanup_free_ char *fn = NULL;
-
-                /* .includes are a bad idea, we only support them here
-                 * for historical reasons. They create cyclic include
-                 * problems and make it difficult to detect
-                 * configuration file changes with an easy
-                 * stat(). Better approaches, such as .d/ drop-in
-                 * snippets exist.
-                 *
-                 * Support for them should be eventually removed. */
-
-                if (!(flags & CONFIG_PARSE_ALLOW_INCLUDE)) {
-                        log_syntax(unit, LOG_ERR, filename, line, 0, ".include not allowed here. Ignoring.");
-                        return 0;
-                }
-
-                log_syntax(unit, LOG_WARNING, filename, line, 0,
-                           ".include directives are deprecated, and support for them will be removed in a future version of systemd. "
-                           "Please use drop-in files instead.");
-
-                fn = file_in_same_dir(filename, strstrip(include));
-                if (!fn)
-                        return -ENOMEM;
-
-                return config_parse(unit, fn, NULL, sections, lookup, table, flags, userdata, NULL);
-        }
-
         if (!utf8_is_valid(l))
                 return log_syntax_invalid_utf8(unit, LOG_WARNING, filename, line, l);
 
diff --git a/src/shared/conf-parser.h b/src/shared/conf-parser.h
index 6c8c1092ea5..0eaff0c0e0e 100644
--- a/src/shared/conf-parser.h
+++ b/src/shared/conf-parser.h
@@ -16,8 +16,7 @@
 
 typedef enum ConfigParseFlags {
         CONFIG_PARSE_RELAXED       = 1 << 0, /* Do not warn about unknown non-extension fields */
-        CONFIG_PARSE_ALLOW_INCLUDE = 1 << 1, /* Allow the deprecated .include stanza */
-        CONFIG_PARSE_WARN          = 1 << 2, /* Emit non-debug messages */
+        CONFIG_PARSE_WARN          = 1 << 1, /* Emit non-debug messages */
 } ConfigParseFlags;
 
 /* Argument list for parsers of specific configuration settings. */
diff --git a/src/shared/install.c b/src/shared/install.c
index 5dd5d2aa9ae..bb2eff73879 100644
--- a/src/shared/install.c
+++ b/src/shared/install.c
@@ -1304,7 +1304,7 @@ static int unit_file_load(
                          "-Target\0"
                          "-Timer\0",
                          config_item_table_lookup, items,
-                         CONFIG_PARSE_ALLOW_INCLUDE, info,
+                         0, info,
                          NULL);
         if (r < 0)
                 return log_debug_errno(r, "Failed to parse %s: %m", info->name);