diff --git a/bindep.txt b/bindep.txt
index ba5c3c6..92b2e05 100644
--- a/bindep.txt
+++ b/bindep.txt
@@ -1,9 +1,17 @@
 # This is a cross-platform list tracking distribution packages needed for install and tests;
 # see https://docs.openstack.org/infra/bindep/ for additional information.
 
+# Due to the nature of libvirt-python package, in DevStack we use the one
+# provided in the distro alongside libvirtd - to ensure the two are compatible,
+# and also to avoid the pip error when it tries to uninstall the distro version
+# (installed in such a way for Nova in DevStack).
+# Do note libvirt-python is used only for instance-oriented monitors, so, e.g.,
+# it is not used by any host monitor.
+# TODO(yoctozepto): Refactor code to not require libvirt-python for unit tests,
+# basically following how it is handled in nova-compute and ceilometer-compute.
 # libvirt-dev and pkg-config are required to compile libvirt-python package.
-libvirt-dev [platform:dpkg]
-pkg-config [platform:dpkg]
+libvirt-dev [platform:dpkg test]
+pkg-config [platform:dpkg test]
 
 libxml2-dev [platform:dpkg test]
 libxslt-devel [platform:rpm test]
diff --git a/releasenotes/notes/libvirt-still-required-22a8d817ee8d0be8.yaml b/releasenotes/notes/libvirt-still-required-22a8d817ee8d0be8.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..722807b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/releasenotes/notes/libvirt-still-required-22a8d817ee8d0be8.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+---
+other:
+  - |
+    *Note to packagers*: ``libvirt-python`` package is still required by
+    instance-oriented monitors. It is available in most distros as
+    ``python3-libvirt``.
+    It is no longer listed in ``requirements.txt`` so it will not get
+    installed when installing ``masakari-monitors`` package from PyPI.
+    The change was done to follow how Nova handles this requirement.
+    This is to satisfy both libvirtd compatibility and recent pip
+    sanity checks.
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index c4347be..96f6a4b 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -4,7 +4,6 @@
 
 automaton>=1.9.0  # Apache-2.0
 keystoneauth1>=3.4.0  # Apache-2.0
-libvirt-python>=6.0.0  # LGPLv2+
 openstacksdk>=0.13.0 # Apache-2.0
 oslo.concurrency>=3.26.0 # Apache-2.0
 oslo.config>=5.2.0 # Apache-2.0
@@ -17,3 +16,10 @@ oslo.privsep>=1.23.0 # Apache-2.0
 oslo.service!=1.28.1,>=1.24.0 # Apache-2.0
 oslo.utils>=3.33.0 # Apache-2.0
 pbr!=2.1.0,>=2.0.0 # Apache-2.0
+
+# Due to the nature of libvirt-python package, in DevStack we use the one
+# provided in the distro alongside libvirtd - to ensure the two are compatible,
+# and also to avoid the pip error when it tries to uninstall the distro version
+# (installed in such a way for Nova in DevStack).
+# Do note libvirt-python is used only for instance-oriented monitors, so, e.g.,
+# it is not used by any host monitor.
diff --git a/test-requirements.txt b/test-requirements.txt
index edf3398..e795de4 100644
--- a/test-requirements.txt
+++ b/test-requirements.txt
@@ -12,3 +12,13 @@ testrepository>=0.0.18 # Apache-2.0/BSD
 testscenarios>=0.4 # Apache-2.0/BSD
 testtools>=2.2.0 # MIT
 ddt>=1.0.1 # MIT
+
+# Due to the nature of libvirt-python package, in DevStack we use the one
+# provided in the distro alongside libvirtd - to ensure the two are compatible,
+# and also to avoid the pip error when it tries to uninstall the distro version
+# (installed in such a way for Nova in DevStack).
+# Do note libvirt-python is used only for instance-oriented monitors, so, e.g.,
+# it is not used by any host monitor.
+# TODO(yoctozepto): Refactor code to not require libvirt-python for unit tests,
+# basically following how it is handled in nova-compute and ceilometer-compute.
+libvirt-python>=6.0.0  # LGPLv2+