diff --git a/.env.production b/.env.production
index 14e18a7..53a793e 100644
--- a/.env.production
+++ b/.env.production
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-VITE_API_URL=\${API_URL}
+VITE_API_URL=${API_URL}
 
-VITE_SENTRY_DSN=\${SENTRY_DSN}
+VITE_SENTRY_DSN=${SENTRY_DSN}
 VITE_SENTRY_ENV=prod
diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index b2fa610..9c3a171 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -1,6 +1,11 @@
 FROM node:20-alpine AS build
 WORKDIR /usr/frontend
 COPY . .
+
+# prepend \ to variables that need to be substituted
+# this prevents them from being substituted with empty values
+RUN sed -i 's/\${/\\${/g' .env.production
+
 RUN npm install
 RUN npm run build