diff --git a/build-pipeline.yml b/build-pipeline.yml
index 145cdc3faf2e7bf7db5610421e67a63e4b30bd50..ffc9f0b836b93cb338946007e2b9f225ad5d069b 100644
--- a/build-pipeline.yml
+++ b/build-pipeline.yml
@@ -220,6 +220,8 @@ workflow:
     RELEASE_NAME_EXPRESSION: Yocto-$${RELEASE_VERSION}
   script:
     - *source_bitbake_env
+    - echo ${DISTRO_VERSION}
+    - echo ${DEFERRED_RELEASE_VERSION}
     - echo ${RELEASE_VERSION_EXPRESSION}
     - echo ${RELEASE_NAME_EXPRESSION}
     - RELEASE_VERSION=$(eval echo "${RELEASE_VERSION_EXPRESSION}")
diff --git a/manifest-pipeline-yocto.yml b/manifest-pipeline-yocto.yml
index 9ef8d69c26b7e456229176107dca2054e7531c6b..976261a37f42d0bc17cd04ec4bce44a7d7dc07fb 100644
--- a/manifest-pipeline-yocto.yml
+++ b/manifest-pipeline-yocto.yml
@@ -103,10 +103,11 @@ fngsystem-pipeline:
     # https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/273409
     # Escaped variables are not correctly passed to child pipelines. Proposed workaround
     # is to use raw variables, but we need at least GitLab 15.6 for that. As soon as we
-    # update our GitLab, we can get rid of the DEFERRED_RELEASE_VERSION variable and
-    # assign its value to RELEASE_VERSION_EXPRESSION directly.
-    DEFERRED_RELEASE_VERSION: $$(echo $$DISTRO_VERSION | sed "s/fngsystem-//")
-    RELEASE_VERSION_EXPRESSION: $DEFERRED_RELEASE_VERSION
-    RELEASE_NAME_EXPRESSION: FNGSystem-${DEFERRED_RELEASE_VERSION}
+    # update our GitLab, we can get rid of the DEFERRED_RELEASE_VERSION,
+    # interim variables and assign its value to RELEASE_VERSION_EXPRESSION directly.
+    PREINTERIM_DR_VERSION: $DEFERRED_RELEASE_VERSION
+    INTERIM_DR_VERSION: $$(echo $PREINTERIM_DR_VERSION | sed "s/fngsystem-//")
+    RELEASE_VERSION_EXPRESSION: $INTERIM_DR_VERSION
+    RELEASE_NAME_EXPRESSION: FNGSystem-${INTERIM_DR_VERSION}
     ARTIFACTS_PATH: build-*/tmp/deploy/images/**/*
     PACKAGE_TYPE: image