Upon her return from repairs in March 1942 she supported Soviet troops during the siege of Sevastopol, the Kerch–Feodosiya operation and the amphibious landings at Novorossiysk at the end of January 1943.

Her active participation in the war ended in October 1943 when three destroyers were lost to air attack and Joseph Stalin forbade missions using large ships without his permission.

[4][5] Voroshilov was laid down at the Marti South shipyard in Nikolayev on 15 October 1935; the second of the Project 26, to use their industrial designation, Kirov-class cruisers.

On 27 May one of her turbines broke down, while helping to transfer the 9th Naval Infantry Brigade from Batumi to Sevastopol, and required repairs lasting until 24 July.

On 1 December, while she was bombarding the then-Romanian Snake Island together with the destroyer Soobrazitelny, the cruiser was damaged by Romanian mines, but she managed to return to Poti for repairs under her own power.

[9][10][11] After her repairs were completed she provided naval gunfire support for Soviet forces landing behind German lines at Malaya Zemlya at the end of January 1943.

[7] Voroshilov was withdrawn from active operations, however, after the loss of three destroyers that were attempting to interdict the German evacuation of the Taman Bridgehead to air attack on 6 October 1943.

This loss caused Stalin to forbid the deployment of large naval units without his express permission which was not granted during the rest of the war.