diff --git a/src/uu/shred/src/shred.rs b/src/uu/shred/src/shred.rs
index f35b1a0db2c..b2ae21e4d03 100644
--- a/src/uu/shred/src/shred.rs
+++ b/src/uu/shred/src/shred.rs
@@ -719,6 +719,10 @@ fn wipe_file(
     }
 
     if remove_method != RemoveMethod::None {
+        file.set_len(0).map_err_context(
+            || translate!("shred-failed-to-remove-file", "file" => path.maybe_quote()),
+        )?;
+
         do_remove(path, path_str, verbose, remove_method).map_err_context(
             || translate!("shred-failed-to-remove-file", "file" => path.maybe_quote()),
         )?;
diff --git a/tests/by-util/test_shred.rs b/tests/by-util/test_shred.rs
index 81f69fb5c66..ccbca2056d3 100644
--- a/tests/by-util/test_shred.rs
+++ b/tests/by-util/test_shred.rs
@@ -420,3 +420,30 @@ fn test_gnu_shred_passes_different_counts() {
     result.stderr_contains("pass 1/19 (random)");
     result.stderr_contains("pass 19/19 (random)");
 }
+
+#[test]
+#[cfg(all(unix, feature = "chmod"))]
+fn test_shred_truncates_before_unlink_readonly_parent() {
+    let scene = TestScenario::new(util_name!());
+    let at = &scene.fixtures;
+
+    let dir = "truncate_test";
+    let file_path = "truncate_test/file";
+
+    at.mkdir(dir);
+    // Create a 1MB file
+    at.make_file(file_path).set_len(1024 * 1024).unwrap();
+
+    // Remove write permission from parent (unlink will fail)
+    scene.ccmd("chmod").arg("a-w").arg(dir).succeeds();
+
+    // shred -u will fail to unlink but must still truncate
+    scene.ucmd().arg("-u").arg(file_path).fails();
+
+    // Restore directory permissions
+    scene.ccmd("chmod").arg("u+w").arg(dir).succeeds();
+
+    // File still exists (couldn't unlink) but must have been truncated to 0
+    assert!(at.file_exists(file_path));
+    assert_eq!(at.metadata(file_path).len(), 0);
+}