diff --git a/apps/ui/middleware.ts b/apps/ui/middleware.ts
index 58ff89833d..7d2acfdcd8 100644
--- a/apps/ui/middleware.ts
+++ b/apps/ui/middleware.ts
@@ -10,11 +10,13 @@ import type { NextRequest } from "next/server";
 import { getSignInUrl } from "@/modules/const";
 import { env } from "@/env.mjs";
 
+const apiBaseUrl = env.TILAVARAUS_API_URL ?? "";
+
+/// should we redirect to the login page
 function redirectProtectedRoute(req: NextRequest) {
   // TODO check that the cookie is valid not just present
   const { cookies, headers } = req;
   const hasSession = cookies.has("sessionid");
-  const apiBaseUrl = env.TILAVARAUS_API_URL ?? "";
 
   if (!hasSession) {
     // on the server we are behind a gateway so get the forwarded headers
@@ -29,6 +31,40 @@ function redirectProtectedRoute(req: NextRequest) {
   return undefined;
 }
 
+/// are we missing a csrf token in cookies and should redirect to get one
+function redirectCsrfToken(req: NextRequest): URL | undefined {
+  // need to ignore all assets outside of html requests (which don't have an extension)
+  // so could we just check any request that doesn't have an extension?
+  if (
+    req.url.startsWith("/_next") ||
+    req.url.match(
+      /\.(js|css|png|jpg|jpeg|svg|gif|ico|json|woff|woff2|ttf|eot|otf)$/
+    )
+  ) {
+    return undefined;
+  }
+
+  const { cookies } = req;
+  const hasCsrfToken = cookies.has("csrftoken");
+  if (hasCsrfToken) {
+    return undefined;
+  }
+
+  const csrfUrl = `${apiBaseUrl}/csrf/`;
+  const redirectUrl = new URL(csrfUrl);
+  const requestUrl = new URL(req.url);
+
+  // On server envs everything is in the same domain and 80/443 ports, so ignore the host part of the url.
+  // More robust solution (supporting separate domains) would need to take into account us being behind
+  // a gateway so the public url doesn't match the internal url.
+  const origin = requestUrl.origin;
+  const hostPart = origin.includes("localhost") ? origin : "";
+  const next = `${hostPart}${requestUrl.pathname}`;
+  redirectUrl.searchParams.set("redirect_to", next);
+
+  return redirectUrl;
+}
+
 // Run the middleware only on paths that require authentication
 // NOTE don't define nested routes, only single word top level routes are supported
 // refactor the matcher or fix the underlining matcher issue in nextjs
@@ -43,12 +79,23 @@ const authenticatedRoutes = [
   "success",
 ];
 // url matcher that is very specific to our case
-const doesUrlMatch = (url: string, route: string) => {
+function doesUrlMatch(url: string, route: string) {
   const ref: string[] = url.split("/");
   return ref.includes(route);
-};
+}
+
+export async function middleware(req: NextRequest) {
+  const redirectUrl = redirectCsrfToken(req);
+  if (redirectUrl) {
+    // block infinite redirect loop (there is no graceful way to handle this)
+    if (req.url.includes("redirect_to")) {
+      // eslint-disable-next-line no-console
+      console.error("Infinite redirect loop detected");
+      return NextResponse.next();
+    }
+    return NextResponse.redirect(redirectUrl);
+  }
 
-export const middleware = async (req: NextRequest) => {
   if (authenticatedRoutes.some((route) => doesUrlMatch(req.url, route))) {
     const redirect = redirectProtectedRoute(req);
     if (redirect) {
@@ -56,7 +103,7 @@ export const middleware = async (req: NextRequest) => {
     }
   }
   return NextResponse.next();
-};
+}
 
 export const config = {
   /* i18n locale router and middleware have a bug in nextjs, matcher breaks the router
diff --git a/apps/ui/modules/apolloClient.ts b/apps/ui/modules/apolloClient.ts
index af0f0ea04f..acdd4188da 100644
--- a/apps/ui/modules/apolloClient.ts
+++ b/apps/ui/modules/apolloClient.ts
@@ -31,20 +31,16 @@ function getServerCookie(
 ) {
   const cookie = headers?.cookie;
   if (cookie == null) {
-    // eslint-disable-next-line no-console
-    console.warn("cookie not found in headers", headers);
     return null;
   }
   const decoded = qs.decode(cookie, "; ");
   const token = decoded[name];
   if (token == null) {
-    // eslint-disable-next-line no-console
-    console.warn(`${name} not found in cookie`, decoded);
     return null;
   }
   if (Array.isArray(token)) {
     // eslint-disable-next-line no-console
-    console.warn(`multiple ${name} in cookies`, decoded);
+    console.warn(`multiple ${name} in cookies`, token);
     return token[0];
   }
   return token;
@@ -55,28 +51,46 @@ export function createApolloClient(
   ctx?: GetServerSidePropsContext<ParsedUrlQuery, PreviewData>
 ) {
   const isServer = typeof window === "undefined";
+
+  const uri = buildGraphQLUrl(hostUrl, env.ENABLE_FETCH_HACK);
   const csrfToken = isServer
     ? getServerCookie(ctx?.req?.headers, "csrftoken")
     : getCookie("csrftoken");
 
-  const sessionCookie = isServer
-    ? getServerCookie(ctx?.req?.headers, "sessionid")
-    : getCookie("sessionid");
-
-  const uri = buildGraphQLUrl(hostUrl, env.ENABLE_FETCH_HACK);
-
-  // TODO on client side we might not need this (only on SSR)
-  const enchancedFetch = (url: RequestInfo | URL, init?: RequestInit) => {
+  const enchancedFetch = async (url: RequestInfo | URL, init?: RequestInit) => {
     const headers = new Headers({
       ...(init?.headers != null ? init.headers : {}),
+      // TODO missing csrf token is a non recoverable error
       ...(csrfToken != null ? { "X-Csrftoken": csrfToken } : {}),
-      // NOTE server requests don't include cookies by default
-      // TODO include session cookie here also when we use SSR for user specific requests
-      ...(csrfToken != null ? { Cookie: `csrftoken=${csrfToken}` } : {}),
     });
 
-    if (sessionCookie != null) {
-      headers.append("Cookie", `sessionid=${sessionCookie}`);
+    // NOTE server requests don't include cookies by default
+    // TODO do we want to copy request headers from client or no?
+    if (isServer) {
+      if (csrfToken == null) {
+        throw new Error("csrftoken not found in cookies");
+      }
+      headers.append("Set-Cookie", `csrftoken=${csrfToken}`);
+      headers.append("Cookie", `csrftoken=${csrfToken}`);
+      // Django fails with 403 if there is no referer (only on Kubernetes)
+      const requestUrl = ctx?.req?.url ?? "";
+      const hostname =
+        ctx?.req?.headers?.["x-forwarded-host"] ??
+        ctx?.req?.headers?.host ??
+        "";
+      // NOTE not exactly correct
+      // For our case this is sufficent because we are always behind a proxy,
+      // but technically there is a case where we are not behind a gateway and not localhost
+      // so the proto would be https and no x-forwarded-proto set
+      // TODO we have .json blobs in the referer (translations), does it matter?
+      const proto = ctx?.req?.headers?.["x-forwarded-proto"] ?? "http";
+      headers.append("Referer", `${proto}://${hostname}${requestUrl}`);
+
+      const sessionCookie = getServerCookie(ctx?.req?.headers, "sessionid");
+      if (sessionCookie != null) {
+        headers.append("Cookie", `sessionid=${sessionCookie}`);
+        headers.append("Set-Cookie", `sessionid=${sessionCookie}`);
+      }
     }
 
     return fetch(url, {
@@ -89,7 +103,7 @@ export function createApolloClient(
     uri,
     // TODO this might be useless
     credentials: "include",
-    // @ts-expect-error: TODO undici (node fetch) is a mess
+    // @ts-expect-error: node-fetch is a subset of fetch API
     fetch: enchancedFetch,
   });