diff --git a/ng-dev/release/publish/actions.ts b/ng-dev/release/publish/actions.ts
index 21f0fd692..c8c6a3d13 100644
--- a/ng-dev/release/publish/actions.ts
+++ b/ng-dev/release/publish/actions.ts
@@ -469,7 +469,38 @@ export abstract class ReleaseAction {
     pullRequest: PullRequest;
     builtPackagesWithInfo: BuiltPackageWithInfo[];
   }> {
-    const releaseNotesCompareTag = getReleaseTagForVersion(compareVersionForReleaseNotes);
+    /** Tag name for the version being used for the base of comparison generating release notes. */
+    let releaseNotesCompareTag: string;
+    // Determine whether the previous version used for comparison in generating release notes used a v prefix.
+    /** The expected comparison version prefixed with `v`. */
+    const prefixedTag = getReleaseTagForVersion(compareVersionForReleaseNotes);
+    /** The expected comparison version. */
+    const unprefixedTag = compareVersionForReleaseNotes.version;
+
+    if (
+      this.git.runGraceful([
+        'ls-remote',
+        '-q',
+        '--exit-code',
+        this.git.getRepoGitUrl(),
+        `refs/tags/${prefixedTag}`,
+      ]).status === 0
+    ) {
+      releaseNotesCompareTag = prefixedTag;
+    } else if (
+      this.git.runGraceful([
+        'ls-remote',
+        '-q',
+        '--exit-code',
+        this.git.getRepoGitUrl(),
+        `refs/tags/${unprefixedTag}`,
+      ]).status === 0
+    ) {
+      releaseNotesCompareTag = unprefixedTag;
+    } else {
+      Log.error(`  ✘   Unable to find previous tag (${prefixedTag}) for building release notes.`);
+      throw new FatalReleaseActionError();
+    }
 
     // Fetch the compare tag so that commits for the release notes can be determined.
     // We forcibly override existing local tags that are named similar as we will fetch
@@ -700,6 +731,10 @@ export abstract class ReleaseAction {
     // built in the staging phase have not been modified accidentally.
     await assertIntegrityOfBuiltPackages(builtPackagesWithInfo);
 
+    // NOTE:
+    // The Github Release must be created prior to publishing to npm as the version of the package
+    // being published is verified by wombot proxy to already match the existing Github relase.
+
     // Create a Github release for the new version.
     await this._createGithubReleaseForVersion(
       releaseNotes,
diff --git a/ng-dev/release/publish/test/common.spec.ts b/ng-dev/release/publish/test/common.spec.ts
index f1517c3c1..963f7bc96 100644
--- a/ng-dev/release/publish/test/common.spec.ts
+++ b/ng-dev/release/publish/test/common.spec.ts
@@ -345,7 +345,7 @@ describe('common release action logic', () => {
           tagName,
           true,
           changelogPattern`
-            Release notes are too large to be captured here. [View all changes here](https://github.com/angular/dev-infra-test/blob/10.0.1/CHANGELOG.md#10.0.1).
+            Release notes are too large to be captured here. [View all changes here](https://github.com/angular/dev-infra-test/blob/v10.0.1/CHANGELOG.md#10.0.1).
           `,
         );
 
diff --git a/ng-dev/release/versioning/version-tags.ts b/ng-dev/release/versioning/version-tags.ts
index bf553d2af..15e34e518 100644
--- a/ng-dev/release/versioning/version-tags.ts
+++ b/ng-dev/release/versioning/version-tags.ts
@@ -10,5 +10,5 @@ import semver from 'semver';
 
 /** Gets the release tag name for the specified version. */
 export function getReleaseTagForVersion(version: semver.SemVer): string {
-  return version.format();
+  return `v${version.format()}`;
 }
diff --git a/ng-dev/utils/testing/github-api-testing.ts b/ng-dev/utils/testing/github-api-testing.ts
index 3f8f302d6..d98ba806f 100644
--- a/ng-dev/utils/testing/github-api-testing.ts
+++ b/ng-dev/utils/testing/github-api-testing.ts
@@ -79,7 +79,9 @@ export class GithubTestingRepo {
   }
 
   expectReleaseByTagRequest(tagName: string, id: number): this {
-    nock(this.repoApiUrl).get(`/releases/tags/${tagName}`).reply(200, {id});
+    nock(this.repoApiUrl)
+      .get(new RegExp(`/releases/tags/v?${tagName}`))
+      .reply(200, {id});
     return this;
   }
 
@@ -113,7 +115,11 @@ export class GithubTestingRepo {
 
   expectTagToBeCreated(tagName: string, sha: string): this {
     nock(this.repoApiUrl)
-      .post(`/git/refs`, (b) => b.ref === `refs/tags/${tagName}` && b.sha === sha)
+      .post(
+        `/git/refs`,
+        (b: {ref: string; sha: string}) =>
+          new RegExp(`refs/tags/v?${tagName}`).test(b.ref) && b.sha === sha,
+      )
       .reply(200, {});
     return this;
   }
@@ -135,7 +141,7 @@ export class GithubTestingRepo {
         if (bodyRegex && !bodyRegex.test(requestBody.body)) {
           return false;
         }
-        return requestBody['tag_name'] === tagName;
+        return new RegExp(`v?${tagName}`).test(requestBody['tag_name']);
       })
       .reply(200, {});
     return this;
diff --git a/ng-dev/utils/testing/sandbox-git-client.ts b/ng-dev/utils/testing/sandbox-git-client.ts
index 7851f97e1..08c67a1cd 100644
--- a/ng-dev/utils/testing/sandbox-git-client.ts
+++ b/ng-dev/utils/testing/sandbox-git-client.ts
@@ -55,6 +55,17 @@ export class SandboxGitClient extends AuthenticatedGitClient {
       return noopSpawnSyncReturns;
     }
 
+    // When ls-remote is run in our testing environment we are always
+    // checking for an already defined ref which "should exist upstream"
+    // Since no upstream exists in testing, we just check to make sure
+    // the ref has already been defined locally by changing the git remote
+    // provided to '.' which points to the local git repo.
+    if (command === 'ls-remote') {
+      const gitRemoteMatcher =
+        /((git|ssh|http(s)?)|(git@[\w\.]+))(:(\/\/)?)([\w\.@\:/\-~]+)(\.git)(\/)?/;
+      args = args.map((arg) => (gitRemoteMatcher.test(arg) ? '.' : arg));
+    }
+
     return super.runGraceful(args, options);
   }
 }