diff --git a/.changelog/5131.internal.md b/.changelog/5131.internal.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..69d95e1137b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changelog/5131.internal.md
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+ci: Explicitly use Ubuntu 22.04 for release builds
+
+This avoids the situation when ubuntu-latest gets changed to something
+else, possibly imposing a different set of dependencies.
diff --git a/.github/workflows/release-dev.yml b/.github/workflows/release-dev.yml
index d755208bee6..023e7c4ea19 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release-dev.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release-dev.yml
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ env:
 jobs:
 
   prepare-dev-release:
-    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    runs-on: ubuntu-22.04
     steps:
       - name: Checkout code
         uses: actions/checkout@v3
diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
index 4bb661fdd8c..fb9d281bf9c 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ env:
 jobs:
 
   prepare-release:
-    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    runs-on: ubuntu-22.04
     steps:
       - name: Checkout code
         uses: actions/checkout@v3