diff --git a/Lib/distutils/dist.py b/Lib/distutils/dist.py
index ac5a0ca0120..1c1ea477db4 100644
--- a/Lib/distutils/dist.py
+++ b/Lib/distutils/dist.py
@@ -354,7 +354,7 @@ def parse_config_files(self, filenames=None):
         parser = ConfigParser()
         for filename in filenames:
             if DEBUG:
-                self.announce("  reading", filename)
+                self.announce("  reading %s" % filename)
             parser.read(filename)
             for section in parser.sections():
                 options = parser.options(section)
diff --git a/Lib/distutils/log.py b/Lib/distutils/log.py
index 6f949d51793..758857081c8 100644
--- a/Lib/distutils/log.py
+++ b/Lib/distutils/log.py
@@ -17,6 +17,9 @@ def __init__(self, threshold=WARN):
         self.threshold = threshold
 
     def _log(self, level, msg, args):
+        if level not in (DEBUG, INFO, WARN, ERROR, FATAL):
+            raise ValueError('%s wrong log level' % str(level))
+
         if level >= self.threshold:
             if args:
                 msg = msg % args
diff --git a/Lib/distutils/tests/support.py b/Lib/distutils/tests/support.py
index 1255413989e..ea122111caa 100644
--- a/Lib/distutils/tests/support.py
+++ b/Lib/distutils/tests/support.py
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 import tempfile
 
 from distutils import log
+from distutils.log import DEBUG, INFO, WARN, ERROR, FATAL
 from distutils.core import Distribution
 from test.support import EnvironmentVarGuard
 
@@ -25,6 +26,8 @@ def tearDown(self):
         super().tearDown()
 
     def _log(self, level, msg, args):
+        if level not in (DEBUG, INFO, WARN, ERROR, FATAL):
+            raise ValueError('%s wrong log level' % str(level))
         self.logs.append((level, msg, args))
 
     def get_logs(self, *levels):
diff --git a/Lib/distutils/tests/test_dist.py b/Lib/distutils/tests/test_dist.py
index 91297f0e158..799b0c06037 100644
--- a/Lib/distutils/tests/test_dist.py
+++ b/Lib/distutils/tests/test_dist.py
@@ -171,6 +171,13 @@ def test_get_command_packages(self):
         self.assertEquals(cmds, ['distutils.command', 'one', 'two'])
 
 
+    def test_announce(self):
+        # make sure the level is known
+        dist = Distribution()
+        args = ('ok',)
+        kwargs = {'level': 'ok2'}
+        self.assertRaises(ValueError, dist.announce, args, kwargs)
+
 class MetadataTestCase(support.TempdirManager, support.EnvironGuard,
                        unittest.TestCase):
 
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 528b3fdc3b0..6948fc6fc26 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -1064,6 +1064,8 @@ Core and Builtins
 Library
 -------
 
+- Issue #6954: Fixed crash when using DISTUTILS_DEBUG flag in Distutils.
+
 - Issue #6163: Fixed HP-UX runtime library dir options in
   distutils.unixcompiler. Initial patch by Sridhar Ratnakumar and
   Michael Haubenwallner.