diff --git a/datatree/testing.py b/datatree/testing.py
index ebe32cbe..1cbcdf2d 100644
--- a/datatree/testing.py
+++ b/datatree/testing.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-from xarray.testing import ensure_warnings
+from xarray.testing.assertions import ensure_warnings
 
 from .datatree import DataTree
 from .formatting import diff_tree_repr
diff --git a/docs/source/whats-new.rst b/docs/source/whats-new.rst
index 9d46c95b..95bdcaf7 100644
--- a/docs/source/whats-new.rst
+++ b/docs/source/whats-new.rst
@@ -26,6 +26,10 @@ New Features
 Breaking changes
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
+- Minimum required version of xarray is now 2023.12.0, i.e. the latest version.
+  This is required to prevent recent changes to xarray's internals from breaking datatree.
+  (:issue:`293`, :pull:`294`)
+  By `Tom Nicholas <https://github.com/TomNicholas>`_.
 - Change default write mode of :py:meth:`DataTree.to_zarr` to ``'w-'`` to match ``xarray``
   default and prevent accidental directory overwrites. (:issue:`274`, :pull:`275`)
   By `Sam Levang <https://github.com/slevang>`_.
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 86ad3639..40f7d5a5 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ classifiers = [
 ]
 requires-python = ">=3.9"
 dependencies = [
-    "xarray >=2022.6.0",
+    "xarray >=2023.12.0",
     "packaging",
 ]
 dynamic = ["version"]