diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/bulk/TransportBulkAction.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/bulk/TransportBulkAction.java
index b70780546d6..94dca0d2167 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/bulk/TransportBulkAction.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/bulk/TransportBulkAction.java
@@ -275,17 +275,17 @@ public class TransportBulkAction extends HandledTransportAction<BulkRequest, Bul
             // also with IngestService.NOOP_PIPELINE_NAME on each request. This ensures that this on the second time through this method,
             // this path is never taken.
             try {
+                if (Assertions.ENABLED) {
+                    final boolean arePipelinesResolved = bulkRequest.requests()
+                        .stream()
+                        .map(TransportBulkAction::getIndexWriteRequest)
+                        .filter(Objects::nonNull)
+                        .allMatch(IndexRequest::isPipelineResolved);
+                    assert arePipelinesResolved : bulkRequest;
+                }
                 if (clusterService.localNode().isIngestNode()) {
                     processBulkIndexIngestRequest(task, bulkRequest, listener);
                 } else {
-                    if (Assertions.ENABLED) {
-                        final boolean allAreForwardedRequests = bulkRequest.requests()
-                            .stream()
-                            .map(TransportBulkAction::getIndexWriteRequest)
-                            .filter(Objects::nonNull)
-                            .allMatch(IndexRequest::isPipelineResolved);
-                        assert allAreForwardedRequests : bulkRequest;
-                    }
                     ingestForwarder.forwardIngestRequest(BulkAction.INSTANCE, bulkRequest, listener);
                 }
             } catch (Exception e) {