diff --git a/src/core/load-fragment.c b/src/core/load-fragment.c
index ac58ce8a14..220e617699 100644
--- a/src/core/load-fragment.c
+++ b/src/core/load-fragment.c
@@ -2474,7 +2474,7 @@ int config_parse_unset_environ(
         for (;;) {
                 _cleanup_free_ char *word = NULL, *k = NULL;
 
-                r = extract_first_word(&rvalue, &word, NULL, EXTRACT_QUOTES);
+                r = extract_first_word(&rvalue, &word, NULL, EXTRACT_CUNESCAPE|EXTRACT_QUOTES);
                 if (r == 0)
                         break;
                 if (r == -ENOMEM)