diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 58e06e0de4..9b378060e7 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@ Changelog for NeoFS Node
 - Contract group wallet support from `neofs-adm` (#2619)
 - `neofs-cli util locode generate`and `neofs-cli util locode info` commands (#2610)
 - Locode DB configuration options (#2610)
+- `v` prefix in version (#2640)
 
 ### Updated
 - Update minimal supported Go version up to v1.19 (#2485)
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index e6641f6f79..0372b1fda0 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -2,10 +2,10 @@
 SHELL = bash
 
 REPO ?= $(shell go list -m)
-VERSION ?= $(shell git describe --tags --dirty --match "v*" --always --abbrev=8 2>/dev/null || cat VERSION 2>/dev/null || echo "develop")
+VERSION ?= $(shell set -o pipefail; git describe --tags --dirty --match "v*" --always --abbrev=8 2>/dev/null | sed 's/^v//' || cat VERSION 2>/dev/null || echo "develop")
 
 HUB_IMAGE ?= nspccdev/neofs
-HUB_TAG ?= "$(shell echo ${VERSION} | sed 's/^v//')"
+HUB_TAG ?= $(VERSION)
 
 GO_VERSION ?= 1.21
 LINT_VERSION ?= 1.55.0
diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
index b4a466a810..bb22182d4f 100644
--- a/VERSION
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -1 +1 @@
-v0.38.1
+0.38.1