diff --git a/build/scripts/create-tags b/build/scripts/create-tags
index 362a10be0c..33d8b89252 100755
--- a/build/scripts/create-tags
+++ b/build/scripts/create-tags
@@ -1,7 +1,8 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 # Important: This script should never cause the pipeline to fail, so that the tags can be created outside of it.
+# To run it locally, you need pass the version, i.e. export VERSION=2.39.x
 # If run locally, it:
-# - does not need to run inside pmm-submodules as it clones all the necessary repos
+# - it clones the pmm-submodules repo and checks out the branch corresponding to the version
 # - does not need to configure git to push using ssh, this user should set it all up ahead of time
 # - will use the user's creds and email to tag the repos, therefore sufficient permissions are required
 
@@ -11,10 +12,10 @@ set -o xtrace
 
 # List of repositories whose release branches need to be tagged
 declare repos=(
-    "percona-platform/grafana"
-    "percona/grafana-dashboards"
-    "percona/pmm"
-    "Percona-Lab/pmm-submodules"
+    "sources/pmm/src/github.com/percona/pmm"
+    "sources/grafana/src/github.com/grafana/grafana"
+    "sources/grafana-dashboards"
+    "."
 )
 
 # These setting are only needed when running in CI (Jenkins or github actions)
@@ -31,37 +32,41 @@ fi
 TAG="v${VERSION}"
 echo "We will be tagging repos with a tag: $TAG"
 
-for REPO in "${repos[@]}"; do
-    DIR_NAME=${REPO##*/} # grab the repo name from <company>/<repo>
-    rm -fr "$DIR_NAME" || true
-    mkdir -p "$DIR_NAME"
+REPO_DIR=pmm-submodules
+if [ -d "$REPO_DIR" ]; then
+    rm -rf "$REPO_DIR"
+fi
+git clone https://github.com/Percona-Lab/pmm-submodules "$REPO_DIR"
+
+cd "$REPO_DIR" >/dev/null
+if ! git checkout "pmm-${VERSION}"; then
+    echo "Fatal: failed to check out to pmm-${VERSION} branch"
+    cd -
+    rm -rf "$REPO_DIR"
+    exit 0 # this is on purpose, we don't want to fail the pipeline
+fi
+git submodule update --init --recursive
 
-    pushd "$DIR_NAME" >/dev/null
-        git clone https://github.com/${REPO} ./
-        # The default is https, and we want to set it to ssh
-        git remote set-url origin git@github.com:${REPO}.git
+for REPO in "${repos[@]}"; do
 
-        BRANCH="pmm-${VERSION}"
-        if ! git checkout "$BRANCH"; then
-            echo "Warning: failed to checkout the repository $REPO to $BRANCH"
-            popd >/dev/null
-            rm -rf "$DIR_NAME"
-            continue
-        fi
+    pushd "$REPO" >/dev/null
+        # git remote set-url origin git@github.com:${REPO}.git
         echo "SHA: $(git rev-parse HEAD)"
 
         # If the tag already exists, we want to delete it and re-tag this SHA
         if git tag -l "$TAG"; then
-            git tag --delete "$TAG"
-            git push --delete origin "$TAG"
+            echo "Fatal: tag $TAG already exists in $REPO, we won't continue..."
+            break
         fi
 
-        git tag --message="Version $TAG." "$TAG"
+        git tag --message="Version $VERSION." "$TAG"
         if ! git push origin "$TAG"; then
-            echo "Warning: failed to tag the repository $REPO with $TAG"
+            echo "Fatal: failed to tag the repository $REPO with $TAG"
+            break
         fi
     popd >/dev/null
-    rm -rf "$DIR_NAME"
 done
 
+cd -
+rm -rf "$REPO_DIR"
 unset repos