diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index ea5c106bb2..9bc5e40365 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1086,6 +1086,7 @@ ifeq ($(uname_O),Cygwin)
 		NO_SYMLINK_HEAD = YesPlease
 		NO_IPV6 = YesPlease
 		OLD_ICONV = UnfortunatelyYes
+		CYGWIN_V15_WIN32API = YesPlease
 	endif
 	NO_THREAD_SAFE_PREAD = YesPlease
 	NEEDS_LIBICONV = YesPlease
@@ -1897,6 +1898,9 @@ ifdef NO_REGEX
 	COMPAT_CFLAGS += -Icompat/regex
 	COMPAT_OBJS += compat/regex/regex.o
 endif
+ifdef CYGWIN_V15_WIN32API
+	COMPAT_CFLAGS += -DCYGWIN_V15_WIN32API
+endif
 
 ifdef USE_NED_ALLOCATOR
        COMPAT_CFLAGS += -Icompat/nedmalloc
diff --git a/compat/cygwin.c b/compat/cygwin.c
index dfe9b3084f..5428858875 100644
--- a/compat/cygwin.c
+++ b/compat/cygwin.c
@@ -1,6 +1,13 @@
 #define WIN32_LEAN_AND_MEAN
+#ifdef CYGWIN_V15_WIN32API
 #include "../git-compat-util.h"
 #include "win32.h"
+#else
+#include <sys/stat.h>
+#include <sys/errno.h>
+#include "win32.h"
+#include "../git-compat-util.h"
+#endif
 #include "../cache.h" /* to read configuration */
 
 static inline void filetime_to_timespec(const FILETIME *ft, struct timespec *ts)