diff --git a/mongoengine/fields.py b/mongoengine/fields.py
index 0ea7d3b6..11425095 100644
--- a/mongoengine/fields.py
+++ b/mongoengine/fields.py
@@ -139,12 +139,12 @@ class URLField(StringField):
         # Check first if the scheme is valid
         scheme = value.split('://')[0].lower()
         if scheme not in self.schemes:
-            self.error('Invalid scheme {} in URL: {}'.format(scheme, value))
+            self.error(u'Invalid scheme {} in URL: {}'.format(scheme, value))
             return
 
         # Then check full URL
         if not self.url_regex.match(value):
-            self.error('Invalid URL: {}'.format(value))
+            self.error(u'Invalid URL: {}'.format(value))
             return
 
 
diff --git a/tests/fields/fields.py b/tests/fields/fields.py
index e6898e1b..d900d706 100644
--- a/tests/fields/fields.py
+++ b/tests/fields/fields.py
@@ -346,6 +346,25 @@ class FieldTest(MongoDBTestCase):
         class Link(Document):
             url = URLField()
 
+        link = Link()
+        link.url = u'http://привет.com'
+
+        # TODO fix URL validation - this IS a valid URL
+        # For now we just want to make sure that the error message is correct
+        try:
+            link.validate()
+            self.assertTrue(False)
+        except ValidationError as e:
+            self.assertEqual(
+                unicode(e),
+                u"ValidationError (Link:None) (Invalid URL: http://\u043f\u0440\u0438\u0432\u0435\u0442.com: ['url'])"
+            )
+
+    def test_unicode_url_validation(self):
+        """Ensure unicode URLs are validated properly."""
+        class Link(Document):
+            url = URLField()
+
         link = Link()
         link.url = 'google'
         self.assertRaises(ValidationError, link.validate)