diff --git a/internal/terraform/context_plan.go b/internal/terraform/context_plan.go
index ee0a4956fd07..ae446a9a8af9 100644
--- a/internal/terraform/context_plan.go
+++ b/internal/terraform/context_plan.go
@@ -325,7 +325,6 @@ func (c *Context) refreshOnlyPlan(config *configs.Config, prevRunState *states.S
 
 func (c *Context) destroyPlan(config *configs.Config, prevRunState *states.State, opts *PlanOpts) (*plans.Plan, tfdiags.Diagnostics) {
 	var diags tfdiags.Diagnostics
-	pendingPlan := &plans.Plan{}
 
 	if opts.Mode != plans.DestroyMode {
 		panic(fmt.Sprintf("called Context.destroyPlan with %s", opts.Mode))
@@ -373,18 +372,17 @@ func (c *Context) destroyPlan(config *configs.Config, prevRunState *states.State
 			return nil, diags
 		}
 
-		// insert the refreshed state into the destroy plan result, and ignore
-		// the changes recorded from the refresh.
-		pendingPlan.PriorState = refreshPlan.PriorState.DeepCopy()
-		pendingPlan.PrevRunState = refreshPlan.PrevRunState.DeepCopy()
-		log.Printf("[TRACE] Context.destroyPlan: now _really_ creating a destroy plan")
-
 		// We'll use the refreshed state -- which is the  "prior state" from
-		// the perspective of this "pending plan" -- as the starting state
+		// the perspective of this "destroy plan" -- as the starting state
 		// for our destroy-plan walk, so it can take into account if we
 		// detected during refreshing that anything was already deleted outside
 		// of Terraform.
-		priorState = pendingPlan.PriorState
+		priorState = refreshPlan.PriorState.DeepCopy()
+
+		// The refresh plan may have upgraded state for some resources, make
+		// sure we store the new version.
+		prevRunState = refreshPlan.PrevRunState.DeepCopy()
+		log.Printf("[TRACE] Context.destroyPlan: now _really_ creating a destroy plan")
 	}
 
 	destroyPlan, walkDiags := c.planWalk(config, priorState, opts)
@@ -394,10 +392,10 @@ func (c *Context) destroyPlan(config *configs.Config, prevRunState *states.State
 	}
 
 	if !opts.SkipRefresh {
-		// If we didn't skip refreshing then we want the previous run state
-		// prior state to be the one we originally fed into the c.plan call
-		// above, not the refreshed version we used for the destroy walk.
-		destroyPlan.PrevRunState = pendingPlan.PrevRunState
+		// If we didn't skip refreshing then we want the previous run state to
+		// be the one we originally fed into the c.refreshOnlyPlan call above,
+		// not the refreshed version we used for the destroy planWalk.
+		destroyPlan.PrevRunState = prevRunState
 	}
 
 	relevantAttrs, rDiags := c.relevantResourceAttrsForPlan(config, destroyPlan)
diff --git a/internal/terraform/context_plan2_test.go b/internal/terraform/context_plan2_test.go
index 1f626bc45bf6..b3b9d6848210 100644
--- a/internal/terraform/context_plan2_test.go
+++ b/internal/terraform/context_plan2_test.go
@@ -3676,11 +3676,19 @@ output "out" {
 		},
 	})
 
-	_, diags := ctx.Plan(m, state, &PlanOpts{
+	plan, diags := ctx.Plan(m, state, &PlanOpts{
 		Mode: plans.DestroyMode,
 	})
 
 	assertNoErrors(t, diags)
+
+	// ensure that the given states are valid and can be serialized
+	if plan.PrevRunState == nil {
+		t.Fatal("nil plan.PrevRunState")
+	}
+	if plan.PriorState == nil {
+		t.Fatal("nil plan.PriorState")
+	}
 }
 
 // A deposed instances which no longer exists during ReadResource creates NoOp