diff --git a/packages/@aws-cdk-testing/cli-integ/tests/cli-integ-tests/cli.integtest.ts b/packages/@aws-cdk-testing/cli-integ/tests/cli-integ-tests/cli.integtest.ts
index ccdf07b166f33..683aea62966ab 100644
--- a/packages/@aws-cdk-testing/cli-integ/tests/cli-integ-tests/cli.integtest.ts
+++ b/packages/@aws-cdk-testing/cli-integ/tests/cli-integ-tests/cli.integtest.ts
@@ -1268,6 +1268,13 @@ integTest('hotswap deployment supports Fn::ImportValue intrinsic', withDefaultFi
   }
 }));
 
+integTest('cdk destroy fails when the stacks do not exist', withDefaultFixture(async (fixture) => {
+  const nonExistingStackName1 = 'non-existing-stack-1';
+  const nonExistingStackName2 = 'non-existing-stack-2';
+
+  await expect(fixture.cdkDestroy([nonExistingStackName1, nonExistingStackName2])).rejects.toThrow('exited with error');
+}));
+
 async function listChildren(parent: string, pred: (x: string) => Promise<boolean>) {
   const ret = new Array<string>();
   for (const child of await fs.readdir(parent, { encoding: 'utf-8' })) {
diff --git a/packages/aws-cdk/lib/cdk-toolkit.ts b/packages/aws-cdk/lib/cdk-toolkit.ts
index 0ab13f0261412..8e37c6e974022 100644
--- a/packages/aws-cdk/lib/cdk-toolkit.ts
+++ b/packages/aws-cdk/lib/cdk-toolkit.ts
@@ -4,7 +4,9 @@ import * as cxapi from '@aws-cdk/cx-api';
 import * as chalk from 'chalk';
 import * as chokidar from 'chokidar';
 import * as fs from 'fs-extra';
+import { minimatch } from 'minimatch';
 import * as promptly from 'promptly';
+import * as semver from 'semver';
 import { DeploymentMethod } from './api';
 import { SdkProvider } from './api/aws-auth';
 import { Bootstrapper, BootstrapEnvironmentOptions } from './api/bootstrap';
@@ -26,6 +28,7 @@ import { validateSnsTopicArn } from './util/validate-notification-arn';
 import { Concurrency, WorkGraph } from './util/work-graph';
 import { WorkGraphBuilder } from './util/work-graph-builder';
 import { AssetBuildNode, AssetPublishNode, StackNode } from './util/work-graph-types';
+import { versionNumber } from './version';
 import { environmentsFromDescriptors, globEnvironmentsFromStacks, looksLikeGlob } from '../lib/api/cxapp/environments';
 
 export interface CdkToolkitProps {
@@ -768,7 +771,12 @@ export class CdkToolkit {
       defaultBehavior: DefaultSelection.OnlySingle,
     });
 
-    // No validation
+    const notExistPatterns = selector.patterns.filter(pattern => !stacks.stackArtifacts.find(stack =>
+      minimatch(stack.hierarchicalId, pattern) || (stack.id === pattern && semver.major(versionNumber()) < 2),
+    ));
+    if (notExistPatterns.length > 0) {
+      throw new Error(`Cannot run cdk destroy on stack(s) ${selector.patterns.join(', ')}. ${notExistPatterns.join(', ')} not exist.`);
+    }
 
     return stacks;
   }
diff --git a/packages/aws-cdk/test/cdk-toolkit.test.ts b/packages/aws-cdk/test/cdk-toolkit.test.ts
index bb84e0fd6b4a7..d19ad84ab7693 100644
--- a/packages/aws-cdk/test/cdk-toolkit.test.ts
+++ b/packages/aws-cdk/test/cdk-toolkit.test.ts
@@ -602,6 +602,19 @@ describe('destroy', () => {
       });
     }).resolves;
   });
+
+  test('fail on non-existent stack', async () => {
+    const toolkit = defaultToolkitSetup();
+
+    await expect(() => {
+      return toolkit.destroy({
+        selector: { patterns: ['Test-Stack-A/Test-Stack-C', 'Test-Stack-X', 'Test-Stack-Y'] },
+        exclusively: true,
+        force: true,
+        fromDeploy: true,
+      });
+    }).rejects.toThrowError('Cannot run cdk destroy on stack(s) Test-Stack-A/Test-Stack-C, Test-Stack-X, Test-Stack-Y. Test-Stack-X, Test-Stack-Y not exist.');
+  });
 });
 
 describe('watch', () => {