diff --git a/test/topology_custom/test_remove_alive_node.py b/test/topology_custom/test_remove_alive_node.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..84e4759af3
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+++ b/test/topology_custom/test_remove_alive_node.py
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+#
+# Copyright (C) 2023-present ScyllaDB
+#
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: AGPL-3.0-or-later
+#
+from test.pylib.scylla_cluster import ReplaceConfig
+from test.pylib.manager_client import ManagerClient
+import asyncio
+import logging
+import pytest
+
+
+@pytest.mark.asyncio
+async def test_removing_alive_node_fails(manager: ManagerClient) -> None:
+    """
+    Test verifying that an attempt to remove an alive node fails as expected.
+    It uses a 3-node cluster:
+    srv1 - the topology coordinator,
+    srv2 - the removenode initiator,
+    srv3 - the node being removed.
+    srv1 has a much bigger failure detector timeout than srv2 to create a scenario
+    where srv2 considers srv3 dead, but srv1 still considers srv3 alive.
+    """
+    logging.info("Bootstrapping nodes")
+    srv1 = await manager.server_add(config={'failure_detector_timeout_in_ms': 300000})
+    srv2 = await manager.server_add(config={'failure_detector_timeout_in_ms': 2000})
+    srv3 = await manager.server_add()
+    await manager.server_sees_other_server(srv2.ip_addr, srv3.ip_addr)
+
+    # srv2 considers srv3 alive. The removenode operation should fail on the initiator
+    # side (in storage_service::raft_removenode).
+    logging.info(f"Removing {srv3} initiated by {srv2}")
+    await manager.remove_node(srv2.server_id, srv3.server_id, [],
+                              "the node being removed is alive, maybe you should use decommission instead?", False)
+
+    logging.info(f"Stopping {srv3}")
+    await manager.server_stop(srv3.server_id)
+    await manager.server_not_sees_other_server(srv2.ip_addr, srv3.ip_addr)
+
+    log_file1 = await manager.server_open_log(srv1.server_id)
+
+    # srv2 considers srv3 dead, but srv1 still considers srv3 alive. The removenode
+    # operation should fail on the topology coordinator side (in
+    # topology_coordinator::handle_node_transition).
+    logging.info(f"Removing {srv3} initiated by {srv2}")
+    await manager.remove_node(srv2.server_id, srv3.server_id, [], "Removenode failed. See earlier errors", False)
+    await log_file1.wait_for("raft topology: rejected removenode operation for node", timeout=60)