diff --git a/.github/workflows/docker-publish.yml b/.github/workflows/docker-publish.yml
index d72483ce19..a02f50d210 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/docker-publish.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/docker-publish.yml
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ on:
   push:
     branches:
       - 'main'
-      - 'releases/**'
+      - 'release/**'
     tags:
       - "v[0-9]+.[0-9]+.[0-9]+" # Push events matching tag versions as v3.0.0
       - "v[0-9]+.[0-9]+.[0-9]+-lsm" # Push events matching '-lsm' postfix tags
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 012118fc04..71866d8b24 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -3,7 +3,8 @@
 BRANCH := $(shell git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)
 COMMIT := $(shell git log -1 --format='%H')
 # Fetch tags and get the latest ICS version by filtering tags by vX.Y.Z and vX.Y.Z-lsm
-LATEST_RELEASE := $(shell git fetch; git tag -l --sort -v:refname 'v*.?' 'v*.?'-lsm 'v*.??' 'v*.??'-lsm | head -n 1)
+# using lazy set to only execute commands when variable is used
+LATEST_RELEASE ?= $(shell git fetch; git tag -l --sort -v:refname 'v*.?' 'v*.?'-lsm 'v*.??' 'v*.??'-lsm | head -n 1)
 
 # don't override user values
 ifeq (,$(VERSION))