(MENAFN- Live Mint) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US counterpart Donald Trump spoke on Saturday, Zelensky's chief of staff Andriy Yermak said in a Telegram post without elaborating.

"President Zelensky is now speaking with President Trump," Yermak wrote.

This call comes in the wake of Russia ramping up strikes in Ukraine . On Friday, Moscow launched attacks on Ukraine's power grid that caused blackouts across the country. On Saturday, power was restored to over 800,000 residents of Kyiv.

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Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko described the attack as“one of the largest concentrated strikes” against Ukraine's energy infrastructure, an AP report revealed.

Russia's Defense Ministry on Friday revealed that Kinzhal hypersonic missiles and strike drones were used to target the Ukrainian power infrastructure.

Power grid targetted to erode morale

Each year since the war began, Russia has been trying to attack Ukraine's power grid in winter in order to erode the morale of Ukrainians ahead of winter.

Winter temperatures run from late October through March, with January and February being the coldest months.

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AP quoted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as saying in his nightly address Friday that Russia was taking advantage of the world being“almost entirely focused on the prospect of establishing peace in the Middle East,” and called for strengthening Ukraine's air defense systems and tighter sanctions on Russia.

Zelensky-Putin clash over Nobel Peace prize

The Ukrainian president had earlier said that he would support Trump's campaign for a Nobel Peace Prize if the United States supplied Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles and helped broker a ceasefire.

Zelensky was quoted as saying, "The plan for ending the war won't be easy, but it is certainly the way forward. And if Trump gives the world -- above all, the Ukrainian people -- the chance for such a ceasefire, then yes, he should be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. We will nominate him on behalf of Ukraine."

Responding to a question on Zelensky's suggestion, Putin said, "Well. I think the opinion of the current head of the Kyiv regime was not something that the Nobel Committee was interested in when they were making a decision. But making this connection between the Nobel Peace Prize and weapon supplies is ridiculous, and it just demonstrates the level of the current Kyiv regime," as per ANI.

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Putin, on the other hand, had last week warned the US that bilateral ties between the two countries would take a hit if the US supplied Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine.

The supply of Tomahawks to Ukraine would“qualitatively new stage of escalation, including in relations between Russia and the US,” the Russian president was quoted as saying at a forum of international foreign policy experts in Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi.

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