diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 19fb4e055..6e33592e8 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -206,6 +206,14 @@
             </archive>
           </configuration>
         </plugin>
+        <!-- Declared so that the `exec:` prefix resolves from the POM. The Azure Artifacts
+        mirror used by the release pipelines does not serve org/codehaus/mojo/maven-metadata.xml,
+        which Maven would otherwise need to look up the prefix. -->
+        <plugin>
+          <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
+          <artifactId>exec-maven-plugin</artifactId>
+          <version>3.6.4</version>
+        </plugin>
       </plugins>
     </pluginManagement>
     <plugins>
diff --git a/utils/docker/publish_docker.sh b/utils/docker/publish_docker.sh
index 2e50745d4..b1ab7f4de 100755
--- a/utils/docker/publish_docker.sh
+++ b/utils/docker/publish_docker.sh
@@ -20,7 +20,12 @@ if [[ ! -f ${POM_FILE} ]]; then
   echo "ERROR: pom.xml not found at ${POM_FILE}"
   exit 1;
 fi
-PW_VERSION=$(mvn exec:exec -Dexec.executable='echo' -Dexec.args='${project.version}' -f ${POM_FILE} --non-recursive -q 2>/dev/null)
+if ! PW_VERSION=$(mvn exec:exec -Dexec.executable='echo' -Dexec.args='${project.version}' -f ${POM_FILE} --non-recursive -q); then
+  # With -q Maven prints its errors to stdout, which was captured above.
+  echo "ERROR: failed to read the project version from ${POM_FILE}:"
+  echo "${PW_VERSION}"
+  exit 1
+fi
 if [[ "${RELEASE_CHANNEL}" == "stable" && ! "${PW_VERSION}" =~ ^[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+$ ]]; then
   echo "ERROR: cannot publish stable docker with Playwright version '${PW_VERSION}'"
   exit 1