diff --git a/man/systemd.unit.xml b/man/systemd.unit.xml
index 9dd02c3060..16aa8303e7 100644
--- a/man/systemd.unit.xml
+++ b/man/systemd.unit.xml
@@ -1334,9 +1334,9 @@
           <listitem><para><varname>ConditionKernelVersion=</varname> may be used to check whether the kernel
           version (as reported by <command>uname -r</command>) matches a certain expression (or if prefixed
           with the exclamation mark does not match it). The argument must be a list of (potentially quoted)
-          expressions.  Each expression starts with one of <literal>&lt;</literal>, <literal>&lt;=</literal>,
-          <literal>=</literal> (or <literal>==</literal>), <literal>!=</literal> (or
-          <literal>&lt;&gt;</literal>), <literal>&gt;=</literal>, <literal>&gt;</literal> for a relative
+          expressions.  Each expression starts with one of <literal>=</literal> or <literal>!=</literal> for
+          string comparisons, <literal>&lt;</literal>, <literal>&lt;=</literal>, <literal>==</literal>,
+          <literal>&lt;&gt;</literal>, <literal>&gt;=</literal>, <literal>&gt;</literal> for a relative
           version comparison, or <literal>=$</literal>, <literal>!=$</literal> for a shell-style glob
           match. If no operator is specified <literal>=$</literal> is implied.</para>
 
diff --git a/src/shared/condition.c b/src/shared/condition.c
index 6c8023143b..ffca2006c0 100644
--- a/src/shared/condition.c
+++ b/src/shared/condition.c
@@ -206,7 +206,7 @@ static int condition_test_kernel_version(Condition *c, char **env) {
                         break;
 
                 s = strstrip(word);
-                operator = parse_compare_operator(&s, COMPARE_ALLOW_FNMATCH);
+                operator = parse_compare_operator(&s, COMPARE_ALLOW_FNMATCH|COMPARE_EQUAL_BY_STRING);
                 if (operator < 0) /* No prefix? Then treat as glob string */
                         operator = COMPARE_FNMATCH_EQUAL;