diff --git a/java/debugger/impl/src/com/intellij/debugger/ui/impl/watch/NodeDescriptorImpl.java b/java/debugger/impl/src/com/intellij/debugger/ui/impl/watch/NodeDescriptorImpl.java
index 2682417b27fc..8016073b3234 100644
--- a/java/debugger/impl/src/com/intellij/debugger/ui/impl/watch/NodeDescriptorImpl.java
+++ b/java/debugger/impl/src/com/intellij/debugger/ui/impl/watch/NodeDescriptorImpl.java
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ import com.intellij.xdebugger.impl.ui.tree.ValueMarkup;
 import com.sun.jdi.InconsistentDebugInfoException;
 import com.sun.jdi.InvalidStackFrameException;
 import com.sun.jdi.ObjectReference;
+import com.sun.jdi.VMDisconnectedException;
 import org.jetbrains.annotations.Nullable;
 
 import java.util.Map;
@@ -88,6 +89,9 @@ public abstract class NodeDescriptorImpl implements NodeDescriptor {
       catch (InvalidStackFrameException e) {
         throw new EvaluateException(DebuggerBundle.message("error.invalid.stackframe"));
       }
+      catch (VMDisconnectedException e) {
+        throw new EvaluateException(DebuggerBundle.message("error.vm.disconnected"));
+      }
       catch (RuntimeException e) {
         LOG.error(e);
         throw new EvaluateException("Internal error, see logs for more details");