diff --git a/tests/dir_helpers.py b/tests/dir_helpers.py
index 336fd3474..17379d3a6 100644
--- a/tests/dir_helpers.py
+++ b/tests/dir_helpers.py
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ import pytest
 from funcy.py3 import lmap, retry
 
 from dvc.utils import makedirs
-from dvc.utils.compat import basestring, is_py2, pathlib, fspath, fspath_py35
+from dvc.utils.compat import basestring, pathlib, fspath, fspath_py35, bytes
 
 
 __all__ = ["tmp_dir", "scm", "dvc", "repo_template", "run_copy", "erepo_dir"]
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ class TmpDir(pathlib.Path):
                     self._gen(contents, prefix=path)
             else:
                 makedirs(path.parent, exist_ok=True)
-                if is_py2 and isinstance(contents, str):
+                if isinstance(contents, bytes):
                     path.write_bytes(contents)
                 else:
                     path.write_text(contents, encoding="utf-8")
diff --git a/tests/func/test_ignore.py b/tests/func/test_ignore.py
index b08d57415..ee4c5f7a1 100644
--- a/tests/func/test_ignore.py
+++ b/tests/func/test_ignore.py
@@ -25,7 +25,12 @@ def test_ignore(tmp_dir, dvc, monkeypatch):
 
 
 def test_ignore_unicode(tmp_dir, dvc):
-    tmp_dir.gen({"dir": {"тест": "проверка", "other": "text"}})
+    tmp_dir.gen({"dir": {"other": "text"}})
+    # Path() doesn't handle unicode paths in Windows/Python 2
+    # I don't know to debug it further, waiting till Python 2 EOL
+    with open("dir/тест", "wb") as fd:
+        fd.write("проверка".encode("utf-8"))
+
     tmp_dir.gen(DvcIgnore.DVCIGNORE_FILE, "dir/тест")
 
     assert _files_set("dir", dvc.dvcignore) == {"dir/other"}