I have an ADO release pipeline where I'd like to establish a connection with Maven and download a package as part of the release pipeline. However, I see the following error.

Error log

[ERROR] Plugin .apache.maven.plugins:maven-clean-plugin:2.5 or one of its dependencies could not be resolved: Failed to read artifact descriptor for .apache.maven.plugins:maven-clean-plugin:jar:2.5: Could not transfer artifact .apache.maven.plugins:maven-clean-plugin:pom:2.5 from/to central (): transfer failed for .5/maven-clean-plugin-2.5.pom: Remote host terminated the handshake: SSL peer shut down incorrectly -> [Help 1]
[ERROR] 
[ERROR] To see the full stack trace of the errors, re-run Maven with the -e switch.
[ERROR] Re-run Maven using the -X switch to enable full debug logging.
[ERROR] 
[ERROR] For more information about the errors and possible solutions, please read the following articles:
[ERROR] [Help 1] 

I have added "MavenAuthenticate@0" and "Maven@3" as part of the release pipeline, and also added a pom.xml to the project directory, but cannot figure out why the SSL connection with the Maven endpoint fails to be established.

pom.xml

<project xmlns=".0.0" xmlns:xsi="; xsi:schemaLocation=".0.0 .0.0.xsd">
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
  <groupId>com.microsoft.TEAMNAME</groupId>
  <artifactId>maven-artifact-generator</artifactId>
  <version>1.0.0</version>
    <repositories>
      <repository>
        <id>OUR AZURE ARTIFACTS FEED NAME</id>
        <url>URL FOR THE PROJECT</url>
        <releases>
          <enabled>true</enabled>
        </releases>
        <snapshots>
          <enabled>true</enabled>
        </snapshots>
      </repository>  
      <repository>
        <id>central</id>
        <url>/</url>
        <releases>
          <enabled>true</enabled>
        </releases>
        <snapshots>
          <enabled>true</enabled>
        </snapshots>
      </repository> 
    </repositories>

    <dependencies>
      <dependency>
        <groupId>.openapitools</groupId>
        <artifactId>openapi-generator-cli</artifactId>
        <version>7.9.0</version>
        <scope>runtime</scope>
      </dependency>
    </dependencies>

    <build>
      <plugins>
        <plugin>
          <groupId>.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
          <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>3.8.1</version>
          <configuration>
            <source>1.8</source>
            <target>1.8</target>
          </configuration>
        </plugin>
      </plugins>
    </build>
</project>

Steps added to pipeline (.yml)

# Maven Authenticate v0
- task: MavenAuthenticate@0
  displayName: Maven Authenticate
  inputs:
    artifactsFeeds: OUR AZURE ARTIFACTS FEED NAME, central

# Maven install
- task: Maven@3
  inputs:
    mavenPomFile: '$(Build.SourcesDirectory)\src\pom.xml'
    goals: 'clean install'
    options: '--batch-mode -X'
    javaHomeOption: 'JDKVersion'
    mavenVersionOption: 'Default'

I only noticed the SSL connection failing for a release pipeline and not a development pipeline, so I initially thought it may have something to do from a security perspective, so I followed the steps here but still no luck.

How can I establish a connection to Maven in a release ADO pipeline?