Post Release Branch Creation Tasks for v1.35.0-rc.0

[neoaggelos]

As a follow up on: #2916 (comment)

Tasks

• Create a thread in #release-management: https://kubernetes.slack.com/archives/CJH2GBF7Y/p1764683565451229
• (optional) Remove jobs for EOL versions, only if agreed upon with Release Managers - drop v1.31 jobs due to EOL test-infra#35999

• Update milestone_applier rules - add milestone applier rules for 1.35, remove 1.31 test-infra#36000
• Update kubekins-e2e-v2/variants.yaml with the new version config - add kubekins-e2e-v2 variants for v1.35 test-infra#36002 - built new images gcr.io/k8s-staging-test-infra/kubekins-e2e:v20251202-27e1f5f482-1.35 gcr.io/k8s-staging-test-infra/kubekins-e2e:latest-1.35
• Rotate configuration of release branch jobs in kubernetes/test-infra in particular releng/test_config.yaml for the upcoming release - update test config for v1.35 test-infra#36005
• Run test generation script, configure the new release dashboards and send a PR with both tests and dashboards config - Generate v1.35 testgrid jobs test-infra#36018 (fix images fix images for v1.35 jobs test-infra#36023)
• Add a new variant for the kube-cross image (kubernetes/release repository) and ensure the image is built and pushed properly - noop, image for v1.35 already exists
• Add new variants for k8s-cloud-builder and k8s-ci-builder images (kubernetes/release repository) and ensure images are built and pushed properly - noop, k8s-cloud-builder v1.35 already exists, k8s-ci-builder v1.35 already exists
• Update references in kubernetes/kubernetes with the new kube-cross image (only after all images are pushed/promoted) -- noop, already done
• Update publishing-bot rules to include the new release branch - add release-1.35 publishing bot rules kubernetes#135553
• Ensure that a new performance tests branch is created by SIG Scalability maintainers - Create new branch release-1.35 for Kubernetes v1.35 perf-tests#3703
• Inform stakeholders about the post branch creation tasks being completed
• Monitor the new release dashboard with the Release Signal Lead for at least 48 hours - mainly for missing or misconfigured jobs

Action Items

Open Questions

/milestone v1.35
/assign @neoaggelos
/cc @kubernetes/release-managers @kubernetes/release-team-release-signal
/priority important-soon
/kind documentation