diff --git a/src/cosalib/qemuvariants.py b/src/cosalib/qemuvariants.py
index ec116950e3..da2de500fe 100644
--- a/src/cosalib/qemuvariants.py
+++ b/src/cosalib/qemuvariants.py
@@ -100,6 +100,7 @@
         "image_format": "qcow2",
         "platform": "kubevirt",
         "image_suffix": "ociarchive",
+        "skip_compression": True,
     },
     "openstack": {
         "image_format": "qcow2",