Two alleged Russian soldiers who were sentenced to 14 years in prison by Kiev for fighting alongside rebels in eastern Ukraine landed in Moscow on Wednesday in a swap for Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko, Russian television showed.

Aleksandr Aleksandrov and Yevgeny Yerofeyev landed at Moscow's Vnukovo airport shortly after President Vladimir Putin pardoned jailed Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko.

Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko, who spent nearly two years in a Russian prison, landed in Kiev on Wednesday as part of a prisoner swap, President Petro Poroshenko's Twitter account said.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Wednesday hailed the release of Ukrainian helicopter pilot Nadiya Savchenko after nearly two years in a Russian prison.

"I am happy and relieved that Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko has finally been released and can return to her family in Ukraine," said Steinmeier, also the current chair of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

"This is good news for which we worked a long time and for which we also had to wait a long time."