diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index e11478f6f..2a8d0f640 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,4 +1,6 @@
 ## unreleased
+
+## v0.1.44 (beta) - August  2, 2023
 * Remove deny and allow load balancer firewall rules when annotations are removed (@olove) 
 
 ## v0.1.43 (beta) - May 25, 2023
diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
index 7b68d4413..db9012a41 100644
--- a/VERSION
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -1 +1 @@
-v0.1.43
+v0.1.44
diff --git a/releases/v0.1.44.yml b/releases/v0.1.44.yml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..81421b250
--- /dev/null
+++ b/releases/v0.1.44.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,154 @@
+---
+apiVersion: apps/v1
+kind: Deployment
+metadata:
+  name: digitalocean-cloud-controller-manager
+  namespace: kube-system
+spec:
+  replicas: 1
+  revisionHistoryLimit: 2
+  selector:
+    matchLabels:
+      app: digitalocean-cloud-controller-manager
+  template:
+    metadata:
+      labels:
+        app: digitalocean-cloud-controller-manager
+    spec:
+      dnsPolicy: Default
+      hostNetwork: true
+      serviceAccountName: cloud-controller-manager
+      priorityClassName: system-cluster-critical
+      tolerations:
+        # this taint is set by all kubelets running `--cloud-provider=external`
+        # so we should tolerate it to schedule the digitalocean ccm
+        - key: "node.cloudprovider.kubernetes.io/uninitialized"
+          value: "true"
+          effect: "NoSchedule"
+        - key: "CriticalAddonsOnly"
+          operator: "Exists"
+        # cloud controller manages should be able to run on masters
+        # TODO: remove this when ccm is not supported on k8s <= 1.23
+        - key: "node-role.kubernetes.io/master"
+          effect: NoSchedule
+        # k8s clusters 1.24+ uses control-plane name instead of master
+        - key: "node-role.kubernetes.io/control-plane"
+          effect: NoSchedule
+      containers:
+      - image: digitalocean/digitalocean-cloud-controller-manager:v0.1.44
+        name: digitalocean-cloud-controller-manager
+        command:
+          - "/bin/digitalocean-cloud-controller-manager"
+          - "--leader-elect=false"
+        resources:
+          requests:
+            cpu: 100m
+            memory: 50Mi
+        env:
+          - name: DO_ACCESS_TOKEN
+            valueFrom:
+              secretKeyRef:
+                name: digitalocean
+                key: access-token
+
+---
+apiVersion: v1
+kind: ServiceAccount
+metadata:
+  name: cloud-controller-manager
+  namespace: kube-system
+---
+apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
+kind: ClusterRole
+metadata:
+  annotations:
+    rbac.authorization.kubernetes.io/autoupdate: "true"
+  name: system:cloud-controller-manager
+rules:
+- apiGroups:
+  - coordination.k8s.io
+  resources:
+  - leases
+  verbs:
+  - get
+  - watch
+  - list
+  - create
+  - update
+  - delete
+- apiGroups:
+  - ""
+  resources:
+  - events
+  verbs:
+  - create
+  - patch
+  - update
+- apiGroups:
+  - ""
+  resources:
+  - nodes
+  verbs:
+  - '*'
+- apiGroups:
+  - ""
+  resources:
+  - nodes/status
+  verbs:
+  - patch
+- apiGroups:
+  - ""
+  resources:
+  - services
+  verbs:
+  - list
+  - patch
+  - update
+  - watch
+- apiGroups:
+  - ""
+  resources:
+  - services/status
+  verbs:
+  - list
+  - patch
+  - update
+  - watch
+- apiGroups:
+  - ""
+  resources:
+  - serviceaccounts
+  verbs:
+  - create
+- apiGroups:
+  - ""
+  resources:
+  - persistentvolumes
+  verbs:
+  - get
+  - list
+  - update
+  - watch
+- apiGroups:
+  - ""
+  resources:
+  - endpoints
+  verbs:
+  - create
+  - get
+  - list
+  - watch
+  - update
+---
+kind: ClusterRoleBinding
+apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
+metadata:
+  name: system:cloud-controller-manager
+roleRef:
+  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
+  kind: ClusterRole
+  name: system:cloud-controller-manager
+subjects:
+- kind: ServiceAccount
+  name: cloud-controller-manager
+  namespace: kube-system