In February 2011, York was deployed to Malta to assist in the evacuation of British nationals from Libya. On 21 April 2011, York arrived at the East Cove Military Port in the Falkland Islands, beginning patrol duties for the islands. On 12 December 2011, York spotted the with its carrier group northeast of Orkney, off the coast of northern Scotland, and shadowed the carrier for a week. This was the first time Admiral Kuznetsov had deployed near UK waters and the closest in 20 years that a Russian naval task group had deployed to the UK. She then sailed around the top of Scotland and into the Atlantic past western Ireland, where she conducted flying operations with her Sukhoi Su-33 Flanker jets and Kamov Ka-27 helicopters in international airspace.
