Laid down in 1979 at 61 Kommunara Shipbuilding Plant in Nikolayev as Chervona Ukraina, the vessel was launched in July 1983, and commissioned on 16 October 1989. The warship joined the Pacific Fleet in 1990 and was listed as having only a caretaker crew up to 2002. While in transit to her permanent base Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky from 27 September to 5 November 1990, she visited the Vietnamese port of Kampan between 22 and 24 October. Between 9 and 13 February 1997 she paid a friendly visit to the South Korean port of Incheon. The rocket cruiser visited Shanghai, China between 2 and 6 October 1999 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the state. Between 10 and 15 October 2002 she visited Japanese city of Yokosuka to honor the 50th anniversary of the Japanese navy. Between 10 and 15 February 2004 Varyag visited the South Korean port of Incheon. Between September and December 2005 she led a ship detachment on visits to Visakhpatnam, Singapore, Jakarta, Sttahip and Haiphong. The cruiser re-entered service with the Pacific Fleet in May 2008 after an overhaul. In April 2009 she paid a visit to the Chinese city of Qingdon to honor the 60th anniversary of the Chinese Navy. In October/November the same year, the ship also visited Singapore. In 2009 Varyag led a fleet of foreign warships participating in a. In June 2010, Varyag, under the command of Captain Eduard Moskalenko and with the Commander Northern Fleet Combined Forces Rear-Admiral Vladimir L. Kasatonov embarked, made a port call to San Francisco. The visit, the first by a Russian navysurface combatant in 147 years, featured a plaque dedication ceremony to commemorate six Russian Imperial Navy sailors who died fighting a fire in San Francisco in 1863. This visit also coincided with President Medvedev visiting Silicon Valley and he once again visited Varyag as he had in Singapore in 2009. From 8 to 11 November 2011 Varyag, accompanied by the tanker Irkut, made a port visit to Vancouver, British Columbia, to commemorate servicemen killed in armed conflicts. Varyag was escorted into Vancouver by the Royal Canadian Navy destroyer, and Varyags crew engaged in friendly sports matches with their Canadian counterparts from Algonquin. In 2012, she participated in the yearly exercise with the Chinese navy off Qingdao. In 2013 she departed on a long voyage to the Mediterranean, visiting Trinkomali, Salala and Alexandria. In November 2014, Varyag led a deployment of four Russian naval vessels to international waters off Australia. The deployment was believed to be linked to the 2014 G-20 Brisbane summit and growing tensions between the two nations. In early January 2016, after a visit to India, Varyag entered the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal to be deployed off Syria′s shore replacing sister ship, in support of Russia's air operation in Syria that had begun in autumn 2015. The ship was named flagship of the Russian naval task force positioned in the eastern Mediterranean. On 21 April 2017 she visited Manila, Kampan, Sattahil and Singapore. In late 2018 Varyag completed another long voyage to India. On 1 October 2019, she embarked on a three-month long voyage to India.
