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The Latest: Ukrainian pilot Savchenko freed, flown to Kiev

FILE - In this Monday, March 21, 2016 file photo, Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko smiles to journalists from a glass-covered cage in court in Donetsk, Rostov-on-Don region, Russia. A lawyer for one of two Russian servicemen jailed in Ukraine says the groundwork is being laid for a possible exchange with Savchenko, who is imprisoned in Russia. Lawyer Valentin Rybin told the state news agency Tass on Wednesday, May 25, 2016, that both Russians have submitted a petition for a pardon to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev, File)
FILE - In this Monday, March 21, 2016 file photo, Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko smiles to journalists from a glass-covered cage in court in Donetsk, Rostov-on-Don region, Russia. A lawyer for one of two Russian servicemen jailed in Ukraine says the groundwork is being laid for a possible exchange with Savchenko, who is imprisoned in Russia. Lawyer Valentin Rybin told the state news agency Tass on Wednesday, May 25, 2016, that both Russians have submitted a petition for a pardon to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev, File)

By Associated Press 2 min read

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) – The Latest on Ukrainian pilot Nadezda Savchenko (all times local):

3:35 p.m.

Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko has returned to Kiev after nearly two years of being imprisoned in Russia.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman confirmed that the plane carrying Savchenko from Rostov-on-Don had landed Wednesday at Kiev’s Borispol Airport.

Savchenko was swapped for two Russian servicemen imprisoned in Ukraine, Alexander Alexandrov and Yevgeny Yerofeyev. Russian state television showed them arriving at a Moscow airport on Wednesday.