Ukrainian parliamentarian Nadia Savchenko, in her first speech at the Verkhovna Rada, called on other MPs not to forget those who were killed defending the country in previous years and those who are still being held in captivity.

"No one is forgotten, nothing is forgotten," Savchenko said in Ukraine's parliament.

She also reminded Ukrainian MPs of their responsibility before the country's people.

"The people of Ukraine will not allow us to sit in these chairs if we betray them," she said.

At the end of her speech, Savchenko sang Ukraine's national anthem, with other parliamentarians present at the session hall joining in.

Following her speech, Savchenko removed a long-time banner with her portrait and a call for her release from the parliamentary tribune and replaced it with a banner with portraits of Ukrainians "being held" in the Russian Federation.

"I am removing my portrait from the tribune and replacing it with a portrait with the faces of the guys who will be looking into your eyes... We have no right not to pull out every single one of them," she said.

Savchenko came to the parliamentary hall on Tuesday morning carrying a Ukrainian flag on her left shoulder and a Crimean Tatar flag in her hands.

Verkhovna Rada Speaker Andriy Parubiy then opened the session and invited Savchenko to the rostrum.

On May 25, Savchenko, sentenced to 22 years in prison by a Russian court for murder, was exchanged for Russian citizens Yevgeny Yerofeyev and Alexander Alexandrov, convicted in Ukraine. The swap was judicially executed through the pardoning of Savchenko by the Russian president and the pardoning of Yerofeyev and Alexandrov by the Ukrainian president.