diff --git a/src/basic/string-util.c b/src/basic/string-util.c
index 9de61aafe8..efd690b076 100644
--- a/src/basic/string-util.c
+++ b/src/basic/string-util.c
@@ -293,13 +293,15 @@ static size_t previous_ansi_sequence(const char *s, size_t length, const char **
                 return 0;
         }
 
-        for (size_t i = length - 2; i > 0; i--) {  /* -2 because at least two bytes are needed */
-                size_t slen = ansi_sequence_length(s + (i - 1), length - (i - 1));
-                if (slen == 0)
-                        continue;
+        for (size_t i = length - 2;; i--) {  /* -2 because at least two bytes are needed */
+                size_t slen = ansi_sequence_length(s + i, length - i);
+                if (slen > 0) {
+                        *ret_where = s + i;
+                        return slen;
+                }
 
-                *ret_where = s + (i - 1);
-                return slen;
+                if (i == 0)
+                        break;
         }
 
         *ret_where = NULL;
diff --git a/src/test/test-ellipsize.c b/src/test/test-ellipsize.c
index 3d47cfebe2..806d4f54ca 100644
--- a/src/test/test-ellipsize.c
+++ b/src/test/test-ellipsize.c
@@ -162,6 +162,21 @@ TEST(ellipsize_ansi_cats) {
         ASSERT_STREQ(h, "🐱…" ANSI_NORMAL "🐱" ANSI_NORMAL);
 }
 
+TEST(ellipsize_ansi_two_byte) {
+        _cleanup_free_ char *e = NULL, *f = NULL;
+
+        /* Fe escape sequences are just two bytes long (ESC followed by 0x40…0x5F). Make sure they are
+         * skipped over like the longer CSI sequences are, in particular when one terminates the string. */
+
+        e = ellipsize("🐱🐱" "\x1bM" "🐱🐱" "\x1bM", 5, 0);
+        puts(e);
+        ASSERT_STREQ(e, "…" "\x1bM" "🐱🐱" "\x1bM");
+
+        f = ellipsize("ab" "\x1bM" "cd" "\x1bM", 4, 90);
+        puts(f);
+        ASSERT_STREQ(f, "ab" "\x1bM" "cd" "\x1bM");
+}
+
 TEST(ellipsize_esc_infinite_loop) {
         /* Make sure we don't infinite loop on an ESC in the first half */
         static const char s[] = { 'A', 'B', 0x1B, ' ', 'D', '\0' };