diff --git a/cmd/kubelet/app/options/options.go b/cmd/kubelet/app/options/options.go
index c71dc3d1a55..1511cd24df1 100644
--- a/cmd/kubelet/app/options/options.go
+++ b/cmd/kubelet/app/options/options.go
@@ -308,6 +308,10 @@ func (f *KubeletFlags) AddFlags(fs *pflag.FlagSet) {
 
 	fs.MarkDeprecated("experimental-bootstrap-kubeconfig", "Use --bootstrap-kubeconfig")
 	fs.StringVar(&f.BootstrapKubeconfig, "experimental-bootstrap-kubeconfig", f.BootstrapKubeconfig, "deprecated: use --bootstrap-kubeconfig")
+	// TODO: when pull-kubernetes-e2e-kops-aws does not need this parameter, delete requireKubeConfig.
+	var requireKubeConfig bool
+	fs.BoolVar(&requireKubeConfig, "require-kubeconfig", requireKubeConfig, "This flag is no longer necessary. It has been deprecated and will be removed in a future version.")
+	fs.MarkDeprecated("require-kubeconfig", "You no longer need to use --require-kubeconfig. This will be removed in a future version. Providing --kubeconfig enables API server mode, omitting --kubeconfig enables standalone mode unless --require-kubeconfig=true is also set. In the latter case, the legacy default kubeconfig path will be used until --require-kubeconfig is removed.")
 	fs.StringVar(&f.BootstrapKubeconfig, "bootstrap-kubeconfig", f.BootstrapKubeconfig, "Path to a kubeconfig file that will be used to get client certificate for kubelet. "+
 		"If the file specified by --kubeconfig does not exist, the bootstrap kubeconfig is used to request a client certificate from the API server. "+
 		"On success, a kubeconfig file referencing the generated client certificate and key is written to the path specified by --kubeconfig. "+