diff --git a/src/backend/distributed/connection/placement_connection.c b/src/backend/distributed/connection/placement_connection.c
index 74c42d95d..b5d1b260c 100644
--- a/src/backend/distributed/connection/placement_connection.c
+++ b/src/backend/distributed/connection/placement_connection.c
@@ -846,6 +846,18 @@ ConnectionModifiedPlacement(MultiConnection *connection)
 		return false;
 	}
 
+	if (dlist_is_empty(&connection->referencedPlacements))
+	{
+		/*
+		 * When referencesPlacements are empty, it means that we come here
+		 * from an API that uses a node connection (e.g., not placement connection),
+		 * which doesn't set placements.
+		 * In that case, the command sent could be either write or read, so we assume
+		 * it is write to be on the safe side.
+		 */
+		return true;
+	}
+
 	dlist_foreach(placementIter, &connection->referencedPlacements)
 	{
 		ConnectionReference *connectionReference =
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/multi_transaction_recovery.out b/src/test/regress/expected/multi_transaction_recovery.out
index 575e62068..6b862cddc 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/multi_transaction_recovery.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/multi_transaction_recovery.out
@@ -347,6 +347,40 @@ SELECT recover_prepared_transactions();
                              0
 (1 row)
 
+SELECT shardid INTO selected_shard FROM pg_dist_shard WHERE logicalrelid='test_2pcskip'::regclass LIMIT 1;
+SELECT COUNT(*) FROM pg_dist_transaction;
+ count
+---------------------------------------------------------------------
+     0
+(1 row)
+
+BEGIN;
+SET LOCAL citus.defer_drop_after_shard_move TO OFF;
+SELECT citus_move_shard_placement((SELECT * FROM selected_shard), 'localhost', :worker_1_port, 'localhost', :worker_2_port);
+ citus_move_shard_placement
+---------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+(1 row)
+
+COMMIT;
+SELECT COUNT(*) FROM pg_dist_transaction;
+ count
+---------------------------------------------------------------------
+     1
+(1 row)
+
+SELECT recover_prepared_transactions();
+ recover_prepared_transactions
+---------------------------------------------------------------------
+                             0
+(1 row)
+
+SELECT citus_move_shard_placement((SELECT * FROM selected_shard), 'localhost', :worker_2_port, 'localhost', :worker_1_port);
+ citus_move_shard_placement
+---------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+(1 row)
+
 -- for the following test, ensure that 6 and 7 go to different shards on different workers
 SELECT count(DISTINCT nodeport) FROM pg_dist_shard_placement WHERE shardid IN (get_shard_id_for_distribution_column('test_2pcskip', 6),get_shard_id_for_distribution_column('test_2pcskip', 7));
  count
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/multi_transaction_recovery.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/multi_transaction_recovery.sql
index 8aeb97ce6..054b85931 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/multi_transaction_recovery.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/multi_transaction_recovery.sql
@@ -193,6 +193,18 @@ SELECT create_distributed_table('test_2pcskip', 'a');
 INSERT INTO test_2pcskip SELECT i FROM generate_series(0, 5)i;
 SELECT recover_prepared_transactions();
 
+SELECT shardid INTO selected_shard FROM pg_dist_shard WHERE logicalrelid='test_2pcskip'::regclass LIMIT 1;
+SELECT COUNT(*) FROM pg_dist_transaction;
+BEGIN;
+SET LOCAL citus.defer_drop_after_shard_move TO OFF;
+SELECT citus_move_shard_placement((SELECT * FROM selected_shard), 'localhost', :worker_1_port, 'localhost', :worker_2_port);
+COMMIT;
+SELECT COUNT(*) FROM pg_dist_transaction;
+SELECT recover_prepared_transactions();
+
+SELECT citus_move_shard_placement((SELECT * FROM selected_shard), 'localhost', :worker_2_port, 'localhost', :worker_1_port);
+
+
 -- for the following test, ensure that 6 and 7 go to different shards on different workers
 SELECT count(DISTINCT nodeport) FROM pg_dist_shard_placement WHERE shardid IN (get_shard_id_for_distribution_column('test_2pcskip', 6),get_shard_id_for_distribution_column('test_2pcskip', 7));
 -- only two of the connections will perform a write (INSERT)