diff --git a/lib/kube/proxy/exec_test.go b/lib/kube/proxy/exec_test.go
index 3aca4f095b157..ef3a019f2b212 100644
--- a/lib/kube/proxy/exec_test.go
+++ b/lib/kube/proxy/exec_test.go
@@ -485,7 +485,7 @@ func TestExecWebsocketEndToEndErrReturn(t *testing.T) {
 	)
 	require.NoError(t, err)
 	t.Cleanup(func() {
-		require.EqualValues(t, 0, kubeMock.KubeExecRequests.SPDY.Load(), "expected no SPDY requests")
+		require.EqualValues(t, 2, kubeMock.KubeExecRequests.SPDY.Load(), "expected no SPDY requests")
 		require.EqualValues(t, 2, kubeMock.KubeExecRequests.Websocket.Load(), "expected one websocket request")
 		kubeMock.Close()
 	})
@@ -594,8 +594,6 @@ func TestExecWebsocketEndToEndErrReturn(t *testing.T) {
 			require.Equal(t, "403", execEvent.ExitCode)
 			require.NotEmpty(t, execEvent.Error)
 			eventsLock.Unlock()
-
 		})
 	}
-
 }
diff --git a/lib/kube/proxy/forwarder.go b/lib/kube/proxy/forwarder.go
index 3ebd5edb505f5..7be267b48ec24 100644
--- a/lib/kube/proxy/forwarder.go
+++ b/lib/kube/proxy/forwarder.go
@@ -2174,29 +2174,27 @@ func isRelevantWebsocketError(err error) bool {
 }
 
 func (f *Forwarder) getExecutor(sess *clusterSession, req *http.Request) (remotecommand.Executor, error) {
-	isWSSupported := false
-	if !sess.isLocalKubernetesCluster {
-		// We're forwarding it to another Teleport kube_service,
-		// which supports the websocket protocol.
-		isWSSupported = true
-	} else {
-		// We're accessing the Kubernetes cluster directly, check if it is version that supports new protocol.
-		f.rwMutexDetails.RLock()
-		if details, ok := f.clusterDetails[sess.kubeClusterName]; ok {
-			details.rwMu.RLock()
-			isWSSupported = kubernetesSupportsExecSubprotocolV5(details.kubeClusterVersion)
-			details.rwMu.RUnlock()
-		}
-		f.rwMutexDetails.RUnlock()
-	}
-
-	if isWSSupported {
-		wsExec, err := f.getWebsocketExecutor(sess, req)
-		return wsExec, trace.Wrap(err)
+	wsExec, err := f.getWebsocketExecutor(sess, req)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, trace.Wrap(err, "unable to create websocket executor")
 	}
-
 	spdyExec, err := f.getSPDYExecutor(sess, req)
-	return spdyExec, trace.Wrap(err)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, trace.Wrap(err, "unable to create spdy executor")
+	}
+	return remotecommand.NewFallbackExecutor(
+		wsExec,
+		spdyExec,
+		func(err error) bool {
+			// If the error is a known upgrade failure, we can retry with the other protocol.
+			result := httpstream.IsUpgradeFailure(err) || httpstream.IsHTTPSProxyError(err) || kubeerrors.IsForbidden(err) || isTeleportUpgradeFailure(err)
+			if result {
+				// If the error is a known upgrade failure, we can retry with the other protocol.
+				// To do that, we need to reset the connection monitor context.
+				sess.connCtx, sess.connMonitorCancel = context.WithCancelCause(req.Context())
+			}
+			return result
+		})
 }
 
 func (f *Forwarder) getSPDYExecutor(sess *clusterSession, req *http.Request) (remotecommand.Executor, error) {
diff --git a/lib/kube/proxy/roundtrip_websocket.go b/lib/kube/proxy/roundtrip_websocket.go
index 832d51c1c9cb6..ff80b28cfef00 100644
--- a/lib/kube/proxy/roundtrip_websocket.go
+++ b/lib/kube/proxy/roundtrip_websocket.go
@@ -26,8 +26,6 @@ import (
 	"github.com/gravitational/trace"
 	"k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/httpstream"
 	utilnet "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/net"
-	versionUtil "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/version"
-	"k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/version"
 	kwebsocket "k8s.io/client-go/transport/websocket"
 
 	"github.com/gravitational/teleport/lib/auth"
@@ -112,21 +110,3 @@ func (w *WebsocketRoundTripper) RoundTrip(req *http.Request) (*http.Response, er
 
 	return wsResp, nil
 }
-
-var kubeExecSubprotocolV5MinVersion = func() *versionUtil.Version {
-	const kubeExecSubprotocolV5Version = "v1.30.0"
-	return versionUtil.MustParse(kubeExecSubprotocolV5Version)
-}()
-
-func kubernetesSupportsExecSubprotocolV5(serverVersion *version.Info) bool {
-	if serverVersion == nil {
-		return false
-	}
-
-	parsedVersion, err := versionUtil.ParseSemantic(serverVersion.GitVersion)
-	if err != nil {
-		return false
-	}
-
-	return parsedVersion.AtLeast(kubeExecSubprotocolV5MinVersion)
-}