After his whirlwind two-day visit to Ukraine, President Donald Trump’s special envoy for Russia and Ukraine retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg is within striking distance of sealing a rare-minerals agreement with the country under attack by Russian strongman Vladimir Putin. 

“Minerals deal nearly done,” a well-placed source told Fox News.  

The Ukrainian side made suggestions to the agreement text and sent it back to the American side, another source involved in the talks told Fox News.

Trump is seeking the rights to access Ukraine’s natural resources in exchange for the United States having provided billions of dollars in support for the Eastern European country against Russia’s invasion. Trump said on Friday that the mineral deal is “pretty close.”

Kellogg added, “I know how soldiers fight for freedom, I know what that means. Anybody who fought for freedom understands what they did. [Coming here] was just a chance to see one of the places that they fought and give them the respect that they deserve — their soldiers.

The retired General paid tribute at the historic site to the soldiers who fought against Russian imperialism. 

He noted that “One thing that you can never really understand until you see it is the intangible heart [of soldiers] and what they showed here was heart. And that’s something you can’t measure. And that’s what really saved Ukraine. It wasn’t necessarily the weapons, it wasn’t necessarily the fact that the world was against Russia’s invasion — it was the fact that soldiers decided to fight for their country.”

Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin, NaNa Sajaia and Brie Stimson contributed to this report.