[3][4] At the end of the Cold War, the Zvezda shipyard was used to decommission Soviet nuclear submarines, with funding and support from the US and Canada under the Nunn–Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction initiative.

[6] Work on the latest attempt at expansion began in 2009; the Russian government has criticised delays and threatened to hand control of the project to third parties, perhaps including Rosneft and Gazprom.

[17] The third and fourth hulls were being built at Damen's Mangalia shipyard in Romania where work has since stopped due to EU sanctions against Russia.

[28][29][30][31][32][33][34] On 19 October 2017, Rosneft ordered ten 42,000 DWT icebreaking shuttle tankers to transport oil from the company's Payakhskaya deposit in the Yenisey River delta along the Northern Sea Route.

[36][37] However, Rosmorport cancelled the contract in October 2022, opting to build two such icebreakers on the company's own Onega Shipbuilding and Ship Repair Plant in Petrozavodsk.

[55] The ships are built in co-operation with Samsung Heavy Industries who delivered the first five hulls fully assembled up to the front bulkhead of the cargo tanks from South Korea.

[59] Furthermore, the French company Gaztransport & Technigaz which provides expertise for the LNG carriers' membrane containment systems has suspended co-operation with the shipyard from the third hull onwards.

[62] Initially Zvezda Shipbuilding Complex, which had been selected as the sole builder for the 120-megawatt Project 10510 "Leader" icebreakers already in September 2018,[63] was supposed to build three such vessels.

[69][70] On 22 December 2020, Zvezda Shipbuilding Complex was awarded the construction of two research vessels for the Russian Academy of Sciences with delivery in 2024–2025.