diff --git a/debian/rules.d/1-maintainer.mk b/debian/rules.d/1-maintainer.mk
index bd2ca56c6e61..724a71c5dba1 100644
--- a/debian/rules.d/1-maintainer.mk
+++ b/debian/rules.d/1-maintainer.mk
@@ -151,7 +151,7 @@ finalchecks: debian/control
 ifeq ($(do_fips_checks),true)
 	$(DROOT)/scripts/misc/fips-checks
 endif
-	$(DROOT)/scripts/checks/final-checks "$(DEBIAN)" "$(prev_fullver)"
+	$(DROOT)/scripts/checks/final-checks "$(DEBIAN)" "$(prev_fullver)" $(do_skip_checks)
 
 .PHONY: startnewrelease
 startnewrelease:
diff --git a/debian/scripts/checks/final-checks b/debian/scripts/checks/final-checks
index 5371057663a3..5d283e3c4c6a 100755
--- a/debian/scripts/checks/final-checks
+++ b/debian/scripts/checks/final-checks
@@ -3,6 +3,12 @@
 debian="$1"
 abi="$2"
 
+skipabi=${3:-}
+case "${skipabi,,}" in
+    1|true|yes) skipabi=true ;;
+    *) skipabi=false ;;
+esac
+
 archs=$(awk '/^Architecture:/ { $1=""; for (i=1; i<=NF; i++) { if ($i != "all") { print $i }}}' debian/control | sort -u)
 
 fail=0
@@ -100,7 +106,9 @@ do
 				fi
 			fi
 		fi
-		abi_check "$debian/abi" "$arch" "$flavour"
+		if [ "${skipabi}" = "false" ] ; then
+			abi_check "$debian/abi" "$arch" "$flavour"
+		fi
 	done
 done