diff --git a/app/vmalert/utils.go b/app/vmalert/utils.go
index b68708630..bf5aeca75 100644
--- a/app/vmalert/utils.go
+++ b/app/vmalert/utils.go
@@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ func (cw *curlWriter) add(str string) {
 }
 
 func requestToCurl(req *http.Request) string {
-	if req.URL == nil {
+	if req == nil || req.URL == nil {
 		return ""
 	}