diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/bulk/TransportBulkAction.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/bulk/TransportBulkAction.java
index 7bdeb5e4b199e..0f2298424221b 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/bulk/TransportBulkAction.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/bulk/TransportBulkAction.java
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@
 import org.elasticsearch.action.ingest.IngestActionForwarder;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.support.ActionFilters;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.support.HandledTransportAction;
+import org.elasticsearch.action.support.WriteRequest;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.support.WriteResponse;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.support.replication.ReplicationResponse;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.update.UpdateRequest;
@@ -44,6 +45,7 @@
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.metadata.IndexMetadata;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.metadata.IndexNameExpressionResolver;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.metadata.Metadata;
+import org.elasticsearch.cluster.node.DiscoveryNode;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.routing.IndexRouting;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.service.ClusterService;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.inject.Inject;
@@ -189,7 +191,14 @@ public static <Response extends ReplicationResponse & WriteResponse> ActionListe
     }
 
     @Override
-    protected void doExecute(Task task, BulkRequest bulkRequest, ActionListener<BulkResponse> listener) {
+    protected void doExecute(Task task, BulkRequest bulkRequest, ActionListener<BulkResponse> outerListener) {
+        // As a work-around to support `?refresh`, explicitly replace the refresh policy with a call to the Refresh API.
+        // TODO: Replace with a less hacky approach.
+        ActionListener<BulkResponse> listener = outerListener;
+        if (DiscoveryNode.isStateless(clusterService.getSettings()) && bulkRequest.getRefreshPolicy() != WriteRequest.RefreshPolicy.NONE) {
+            listener = outerListener.delegateFailure((l, r) -> { client.admin().indices().prepareRefresh().execute(l.map(ignored -> r)); });
+            bulkRequest.setRefreshPolicy(WriteRequest.RefreshPolicy.NONE);
+        }
         /*
          * This is called on the Transport tread so we can check the indexing
          * memory pressure *quickly* but we don't want to keep the transport
diff --git a/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/action/bulk/TransportBulkActionIndicesThatCannotBeCreatedTests.java b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/action/bulk/TransportBulkActionIndicesThatCannotBeCreatedTests.java
index 06ff4a8fed51c..3deae4081816d 100644
--- a/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/action/bulk/TransportBulkActionIndicesThatCannotBeCreatedTests.java
+++ b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/action/bulk/TransportBulkActionIndicesThatCannotBeCreatedTests.java
@@ -100,6 +100,7 @@ private void indicesThatCannotBeCreatedTestCase(
         when(state.getMetadata()).thenReturn(Metadata.EMPTY_METADATA);
         when(state.metadata()).thenReturn(Metadata.EMPTY_METADATA);
         when(clusterService.state()).thenReturn(state);
+        when(clusterService.getSettings()).thenReturn(Settings.EMPTY);
 
         DiscoveryNodes discoveryNodes = mock(DiscoveryNodes.class);
         when(state.getNodes()).thenReturn(discoveryNodes);
diff --git a/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/action/bulk/TransportBulkActionIngestTests.java b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/action/bulk/TransportBulkActionIngestTests.java
index af9bbb3b22798..3343f1f9f6eb0 100644
--- a/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/action/bulk/TransportBulkActionIngestTests.java
+++ b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/action/bulk/TransportBulkActionIngestTests.java
@@ -188,6 +188,7 @@ public void setupAction() {
         DiscoveryNode localNode = mock(DiscoveryNode.class);
         when(localNode.isIngestNode()).thenAnswer(stub -> localIngest);
         when(clusterService.localNode()).thenReturn(localNode);
+        when(clusterService.getSettings()).thenReturn(Settings.EMPTY);
         remoteNode1 = mock(DiscoveryNode.class);
         remoteNode2 = mock(DiscoveryNode.class);
         nodes = mock(DiscoveryNodes.class);