diff --git a/R-package/R/lgb.cv.R b/R-package/R/lgb.cv.R
index 6fa0a30c606f..597ed4c0f25a 100644
--- a/R-package/R/lgb.cv.R
+++ b/R-package/R/lgb.cv.R
@@ -148,6 +148,15 @@ lgb.cv <- function(params = list()
     end_iteration <- begin_iteration + nrounds - 1L
   }
 
+  # Check interaction constraints
+  cnames <- NULL
+  if (!is.null(colnames)) {
+    cnames <- colnames
+  } else if (!is.null(data$get_colnames())) {
+    cnames <- data$get_colnames()
+  }
+  params[["interaction_constraints"]] <- lgb.check_interaction_constraints(params, cnames)
+
   # Check for weights
   if (!is.null(weight)) {
     data$setinfo("weight", weight)
diff --git a/R-package/R/lgb.train.R b/R-package/R/lgb.train.R
index 1ba5bf086647..54f83bd759b0 100644
--- a/R-package/R/lgb.train.R
+++ b/R-package/R/lgb.train.R
@@ -124,9 +124,14 @@ lgb.train <- function(params = list(),
     end_iteration <- begin_iteration + nrounds - 1L
   }
 
-  if (!is.null(params[["interaction_constraints"]])) {
-    stop("lgb.train: interaction_constraints is not implemented")
+  # Check interaction constraints
+  cnames <- NULL
+  if (!is.null(colnames)) {
+    cnames <- colnames
+  } else if (!is.null(data$get_colnames())) {
+    cnames <- data$get_colnames()
   }
+  params[["interaction_constraints"]] <- lgb.check_interaction_constraints(params, cnames)
 
   # Update parameters with parsed parameters
   data$update_params(params)
diff --git a/R-package/R/utils.R b/R-package/R/utils.R
index 1e0e759d653b..f21d85001256 100644
--- a/R-package/R/utils.R
+++ b/R-package/R/utils.R
@@ -167,6 +167,65 @@ lgb.params2str <- function(params, ...) {
 
 }
 
+lgb.check_interaction_constraints <- function(params, column_names) {
+
+  # Convert interaction constraints to feature numbers
+  string_constraints <- list()
+
+  if (!is.null(params[["interaction_constraints"]])) {
+
+    # validation
+    if (!methods::is(params[["interaction_constraints"]], "list")) {
+        stop("interaction_constraints must be a list")
+    }
+    if (!all(sapply(params[["interaction_constraints"]], function(x) {is.character(x) || is.numeric(x)}))) {
+        stop("every element in interaction_constraints must be a character vector or numeric vector")
+    }
+
+    for (constraint in params[["interaction_constraints"]]) {
+
+      # Check for character name
+      if (is.character(constraint)) {
+
+          constraint_indices <- as.integer(match(constraint, column_names) - 1L)
+
+          # Provided indices, but some indices are not existing?
+          if (sum(is.na(constraint_indices)) > 0L) {
+            stop(
+              "supplied an unknown feature in interaction_constraints "
+              , sQuote(constraint[is.na(constraint_indices)])
+            )
+          }
+
+        } else {
+
+          # Check that constraint indices are at most number of features
+          if (max(constraint) > length(column_names)) {
+            stop(
+              "supplied a too large value in interaction_constraints: "
+              , max(constraint)
+              , " but only "
+              , length(column_names)
+              , " features"
+            )
+          }
+
+          # Store indices as [0, n-1] indexed instead of [1, n] indexed
+          constraint_indices <- as.integer(constraint - 1L)
+
+        }
+
+        # Convert constraint to string
+        constraint_string <- paste0("[", paste0(constraint_indices, collapse = ","), "]")
+        string_constraints <- append(string_constraints, constraint_string)
+    }
+
+  }
+
+  return(string_constraints)
+
+}
+
 lgb.c_str <- function(x) {
 
   # Perform character to raw conversion
diff --git a/R-package/tests/testthat/test_basic.R b/R-package/tests/testthat/test_basic.R
index c7583ac77154..82ba123f65a9 100644
--- a/R-package/tests/testthat/test_basic.R
+++ b/R-package/tests/testthat/test_basic.R
@@ -1030,3 +1030,103 @@ test_that("using lightgbm() without early stopping, best_iter and best_score com
   expect_identical(bst$best_iter, which.max(auc_scores))
   expect_identical(bst$best_score, auc_scores[which.max(auc_scores)])
 })
+
+test_that("lgb.train() throws an informative error if interaction_constraints is not a list", {
+  dtrain <- lgb.Dataset(train$data, label = train$label)
+  params <- list(objective = "regression", interaction_constraints = "[1,2],[3]")
+    expect_error({
+      bst <- lightgbm(
+        data = dtrain
+        , params = params
+        , nrounds = 2L
+      )
+    }, "interaction_constraints must be a list")
+})
+
+test_that(paste0("lgb.train() throws an informative error if the members of interaction_constraints ",
+                 "are not character or numeric vectors"), {
+  dtrain <- lgb.Dataset(train$data, label = train$label)
+  params <- list(objective = "regression", interaction_constraints = list(list(1L, 2L), list(3L)))
+    expect_error({
+      bst <- lightgbm(
+        data = dtrain
+        , params = params
+        , nrounds = 2L
+      )
+    }, "every element in interaction_constraints must be a character vector or numeric vector")
+})
+
+test_that("lgb.train() throws an informative error if interaction_constraints contains a too large index", {
+  dtrain <- lgb.Dataset(train$data, label = train$label)
+  params <- list(objective = "regression",
+                 interaction_constraints = list(c(1L, length(colnames(train$data)) + 1L), 3L))
+    expect_error({
+      bst <- lightgbm(
+        data = dtrain
+        , params = params
+        , nrounds = 2L
+      )
+    }, "supplied a too large value in interaction_constraints")
+})
+
+test_that(paste0("lgb.train() gives same result when interaction_constraints is specified as a list of ",
+                 "character vectors, numeric vectors, or a combination"), {
+  set.seed(1L)
+  dtrain <- lgb.Dataset(train$data, label = train$label)
+
+  params <- list(objective = "regression", interaction_constraints = list(c(1L, 2L), 3L))
+  bst <- lightgbm(
+    data = dtrain
+    , params = params
+    , nrounds = 2L
+  )
+  pred1 <- bst$predict(test$data)
+
+  cnames <- colnames(train$data)
+  params <- list(objective = "regression", interaction_constraints = list(c(cnames[[1L]], cnames[[2L]]), cnames[[3L]]))
+  bst <- lightgbm(
+    data = dtrain
+    , params = params
+    , nrounds = 2L
+  )
+  pred2 <- bst$predict(test$data)
+
+  params <- list(objective = "regression", interaction_constraints = list(c(cnames[[1L]], cnames[[2L]]), 3L))
+  bst <- lightgbm(
+    data = dtrain
+    , params = params
+    , nrounds = 2L
+  )
+  pred3 <- bst$predict(test$data)
+
+  expect_equal(pred1, pred2)
+  expect_equal(pred2, pred3)
+
+})
+
+test_that(paste0("lgb.train() gives same results when using interaction_constraints and specifying colnames"), {
+  set.seed(1L)
+  dtrain <- lgb.Dataset(train$data, label = train$label)
+
+  params <- list(objective = "regression", interaction_constraints = list(c(1L, 2L), 3L))
+  bst <- lightgbm(
+    data = dtrain
+    , params = params
+    , nrounds = 2L
+  )
+  pred1 <- bst$predict(test$data)
+
+  new_colnames <- paste0(colnames(train$data), "_x")
+  params <- list(objective = "regression"
+                 , interaction_constraints = list(c(new_colnames[1L], new_colnames[2L]), new_colnames[3L]))
+  bst <- lightgbm(
+    data = dtrain
+    , params = params
+    , nrounds = 2L
+    , colnames = new_colnames
+  )
+  pred2 <- bst$predict(test$data)
+
+  expect_equal(pred1, pred2)
+
+})
diff --git a/docs/Parameters.rst b/docs/Parameters.rst
index 01362fb9af34..3d8b23eee22e 100644
--- a/docs/Parameters.rst
+++ b/docs/Parameters.rst
@@ -548,7 +548,7 @@ Learning Control Parameters
 
       -  for Python-package, list of lists, e.g. ``[[0, 1, 2], [2, 3]]``
 
-      -  for R-package, **not yet supported**
+      -  for R-package, list of character or numeric vectors, e.g. ``list(c("var1", "var2", "var3"), c("var3", "var4"))`` or ``list(c(1L, 2L, 3L), c(3L, 4L))``. Numeric vectors should use 1-based indexing, where ``1L`` is the first feature, ``2L`` is the second feature, etc
 
    -  any two features can only appear in the same branch only if there exists a constraint containing both features
 
diff --git a/include/LightGBM/config.h b/include/LightGBM/config.h
index 2a3335c1c0ad..5825ec5f6d43 100644
--- a/include/LightGBM/config.h
+++ b/include/LightGBM/config.h
@@ -509,7 +509,7 @@ struct Config {
   // desc = by default interaction constraints are disabled, to enable them you can specify
   // descl2 = for CLI, lists separated by commas, e.g. ``[0,1,2],[2,3]``
   // descl2 = for Python-package, list of lists, e.g. ``[[0, 1, 2], [2, 3]]``
-  // descl2 = for R-package, **not yet supported**
+  // descl2 = for R-package, list of character or numeric vectors, e.g. ``list(c("var1", "var2", "var3"), c("var3", "var4"))`` or ``list(c(1L, 2L, 3L), c(3L, 4L))``. Numeric vectors should use 1-based indexing, where ``1L`` is the first feature, ``2L`` is the second feature, etc
   // desc = any two features can only appear in the same branch only if there exists a constraint containing both features
   std::string interaction_constraints = "";