The Kiev Post and other outlets reported she was being exchanged for two Russian prisoners held by Ukraine.
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Moscow-Kiev ties have been in tatters since the Crimean Peninsula joined Russian Federation in a referendum in March 2014.
Savchenko’s “release, after a long ordeal that included solitary confinement, is an important part of fulfilling Russia’s commitments under the Minsk agreements and should now provide impetus for their complete implementation”, Kerry said in a statement.
Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko (R) presents the Hero of Ukraine award to Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko in Kiev on May 25, 2016.
Lieutenant Savchenko arrived in Kiev as the Russians, who were pardoned on Wednesday by Mr Poroshenko, arrived in Moscow. They were met by their wives and declined to speak publicly to Russian state journalists on the tarmac.
They both told Reuters in interviews past year they were Russian special forces soldiers who were captured while carrying out a secret operation in the rebel-held Donbas region.
Savchenko became a symbol of Ukrainian resistance to Russian Federation during her nearly two years of captivity.
Ukrainian officials said that the two Russians were proof that Moscow was managing the conflict in south-east Ukraine and continuing to send men and material to destabilise the new government.
Expected to be used as bargaining chips, all three were given lengthy prison sentences.
While in prison, she launched several hunger strikes to protest her detention, refusing both food and water during her high-profile trial in southern Russian Federation.
Savchenko’s defiance, which she had also displayed in court in Russian Federation, was echoed by her supporters as she left the airport for the presidential palace.
Yerofeyev and Alexandrov were being flown from Kiev to Moscow on board a plane belonging to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Meanwhile, Savchenko has already been delivered to Kiev on a Ukrainian plane, Peskov said.
Putin says he made the decision to release Savchenko after the relatives of the killed journalists petitioned him to show mercy to Savchenko.
“I don’t want people to want war, I want people to want peace but unfortunately peace is only possible through war”. “So look. I know how to keep my word”.
But on Wednesday she looked strong and sounded like Ukraine’s future leader.
Ms Savchenko was captured in 2014, as pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions battled government forces.
At her trial in southern Russian Federation, she was accused of acting as an artillery spotter, calling down the fire that killed the journalists.
Comparing the saga to Lord of the Rings, one of her lawyers said she had been “freed from the jaws of Mordor”.
On her arrival she burst into song and chanted: “Glory to Ukraine!”
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Ukraine said the men were in Russian military intelligence, but Moscow denied they were serving army officers, insisting they had quit the military before heading to fight in Ukraine as volunteers.
