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In the context of the Abraham–Minkowski controversy, the problem of the propagation of electromagnetic waves in a linear dielectric medium with a time-varying dielectric constant is considered. It is shown that the momentum of an electromagnetic wave in the form of Minkowski is preserved with an instantaneous change in the dielectric permittivity of the medium. At the same time, the Abraham momentum is not conserved, despite the spatial homogeneity of the problem. This circumstance is interpreted as a manifestation of the Abraham force.