diff --git a/Changelog.md b/Changelog.md
index c3312e5d4..a0a44654a 100644
--- a/Changelog.md
+++ b/Changelog.md
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 * Compare minimum python version requirement between `requires-python` and bindings crate in [#954](https://github.com/PyO3/maturin/pull/954)
 * Add a `--target` option to `maturin list-python` command in [#957](https://github.com/PyO3/maturin/pull/957)
 * Add support for using bundled python sysconfigs for PyPy when abi3 feature is enabled in [#958](https://github.com/PyO3/maturin/pull/958)
+* Set `PYO3_PYTHON` env var for PyPy when abi3 is enabled in [#960](https://github.com/PyO3/maturin/pull/960)
 
 ## [0.12.19] - 2022-06-05
 
diff --git a/src/compile.rs b/src/compile.rs
index bf9e43e58..cdd655e4b 100644
--- a/src/compile.rs
+++ b/src/compile.rs
@@ -302,7 +302,11 @@ fn compile_target(
     if let Some(interpreter) = python_interpreter {
         // Target python interpreter isn't runnable when cross compiling
         if interpreter.runnable {
-            if bindings_crate.is_bindings("pyo3") || bindings_crate.is_bindings("pyo3-ffi") {
+            if bindings_crate.is_bindings("pyo3")
+                || bindings_crate.is_bindings("pyo3-ffi")
+                || (matches!(bindings_crate, BridgeModel::BindingsAbi3(_, _))
+                    && matches!(interpreter.interpreter_kind, InterpreterKind::PyPy))
+            {
                 build_command.env("PYO3_PYTHON", &interpreter.executable);
             }