diff --git a/polkadot/.gitlab-ci.yml b/polkadot/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 6ab25e5943..1a455edaff 100644
--- a/polkadot/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/polkadot/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -169,12 +169,13 @@ publish-docker-release:
     - docker info
   script:
     - VERSION="$(cat ./artifacts/VERSION)"
+    - EXTRATAG="${CI_COMMIT_TAG:-latest}"
     - echo "Polkadot version = ${VERSION}"
     - test -z "${VERSION}" && exit 1
     - cd ./artifacts
-    - docker build --tag $CONTAINER_IMAGE:$VERSION --tag $CONTAINER_IMAGE:latest .
+    - docker build --tag $CONTAINER_IMAGE:$VERSION --tag $CONTAINER_IMAGE:$EXTRATAG .
     - docker push $CONTAINER_IMAGE:$VERSION
-    - docker push $CONTAINER_IMAGE:latest
+    - docker push $CONTAINER_IMAGE:$EXTRATAG
   after_script:
     - docker logout
     # only VERSION information is needed for the deployment
@@ -191,16 +192,19 @@ publish-s3-release:
     BUCKET:                        "releases.parity.io"
     PREFIX:                        "polkadot/${ARCH}-${DOCKER_OS}"
   script:
-    - aws s3 sync ./artifacts/ s3://${BUCKET}/${PREFIX}/$(cat ./artifacts/VERSION)/
+    - VERSION="${CI_COMMIT_TAG:-$(cat ./artifacts/VERSION)}"
+    # LATEST_BRANCH will be empty if it's not a tag build i.e. CI_COMMIT_TAG is unset
+    - LATEST_BRANCH="$(echo $CI_COMMIT_TAG | sed -n -r 's/^(v[0-9]+\.[0-9]+)\.[0-9]+$/\1/p')"
+    - aws s3 sync ./artifacts/ s3://${BUCKET}/${PREFIX}/${VERSION}/
     - echo "update objects in latest path"
     - for file in ./artifacts/*; do
       name="$(basename ${file})";
       aws s3api copy-object
-        --copy-source ${BUCKET}/${PREFIX}/$(cat ./artifacts/VERSION)/${name}
-        --bucket ${BUCKET} --key ${PREFIX}/latest/${name};
+        --copy-source ${BUCKET}/${PREFIX}/${VERSION}/${name}
+        --bucket ${BUCKET} --key ${PREFIX}/latest${LATEST_BRANCH}/${name};
       done
   after_script:
-    - aws s3 ls s3://${BUCKET}/${PREFIX}/latest/
+    - aws s3 ls s3://${BUCKET}/${PREFIX}/latest${LATEST_BRANCH}/
         --recursive --human-readable --summarize
 
 
@@ -219,8 +223,8 @@ publish-s3-release:
     - kubernetes-parity-build
   before_script:
     - test -z "${DEPLOY_TAG}" &&
-      test -f ./artifacts/VERSION &&
-      DEPLOY_TAG="$(cat ./artifacts/VERSION)"
+      test "${CI_COMMIT_TAG}" -o -f ./artifacts/VERSION &&
+      DEPLOY_TAG="${CI_COMMIT_TAG:-$(cat ./artifacts/VERSION)}"
     - test "${DEPLOY_TAG}" || ( echo "Neither DEPLOY_TAG nor VERSION information available"; exit 1 )
   script:
     - echo "Polkadot version = ${DEPLOY_TAG}"