diff --git a/pkg/cmd/debug/debug.go b/pkg/cmd/debug/debug.go
index 7d44b7db..6720c33b 100644
--- a/pkg/cmd/debug/debug.go
+++ b/pkg/cmd/debug/debug.go
@@ -275,8 +275,17 @@ func (o *DebugOptions) Validate(cmd *cobra.Command) error {
 	}
 
 	// TargetContainer
-	if len(o.TargetContainer) > 0 && len(o.CopyTo) > 0 {
-		return fmt.Errorf("--target is incompatible with --copy-to. Use --share-processes instead.")
+	if len(o.TargetContainer) > 0 {
+		if len(o.CopyTo) > 0 {
+			return fmt.Errorf("--target is incompatible with --copy-to. Use --share-processes instead.")
+		}
+		if !o.Quiet {
+			// If the runtime doesn't support container namespace targeting this will fail silently, which has caused
+			// some confusion (ex: https://issues.k8s.io/98362), so print a warning. This can be removed when
+			// EphemeralContainers are generally available.
+			fmt.Fprintf(o.Out, "Targeting container %q. If you don't see processes from this container it may be because the container runtime doesn't support this feature.\n", o.TargetContainer)
+			// TODO(verb): Add a list of supported container runtimes to https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/workloads/pods/ephemeral-containers/ and then link here.
+		}
 	}
 
 	// TTY