diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
index 53c44b7c..11e7f03e 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -88,6 +88,12 @@ jobs:
         with:
           submodules: true
 
+      # ion-c derives its version via `git describe --tags --match "v*"`. Submodule
+      # checkouts don't fetch tags, so without this the version macros expand to empty
+      # and ion_version.c fails to compile ("expected expression before ';' token").
+      - name: Fetch ion-c tags
+        run: git -C src/ion-c fetch --tags
+
       - name: Set up QEMU for Linux Builds
         if: runner.os == 'Linux'
         uses: docker/setup-qemu-action@v3
diff --git a/CHANGES.md b/CHANGES.md
index bb776f3e..9fe40846 100644
--- a/CHANGES.md
+++ b/CHANGES.md
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+### (unreleased)
+* Fix ion-c submodule missing tags (#435)
+
 ### 0.14.1 (2026-06-05)
 * Fix release workflow to install test dependencies (#431)
 * Fix release workflow pypy version: pypy-3.8 to pypy-3.10 (#432)