The imposition of an embargo on oil and gas exports from Russia by Western countries should not be tied to its use of chemical weapons in Ukraine, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with British magazine The Economist.

"Impose an embargo on Russian oil and gas exports... They have been threatened, but not yet implemented. Now we are hearing that the decision depends on whether Russia launches a chemical attack on us. This is not the right approach. We are not guinea pigs to be experimented on," Zelensky said.

At the same time, the head of state once again emphasized his belief that if tough sanctions against Russia had been introduced preventively, then a full-scale Russian invasion would not have occurred or, at least, would have given the Ukrainian military more time to prepare to repel a Russian attack.

"Our Western partners have not completed the sanctions on disconnecting the banking system from SWIFT, many more banks have not been disconnected. They have taken very important steps to support us, but the central bank of Russia has not been disconnected. All these sanctions are incomplete," Zelensky said.

Against this background, the president called on Ukraine's partners to stop taking a defensive position in dialogue with Russia and be afraid of it, but to act offensively.

"Our partners view Russia now through a military-strategic lens and are using Ukraine as a shield. We are the ones who are feeling the pain. It is good that they are on the side of Ukraine, but they have to stop being defensive in their dialogue with Russia. We insist they can act offensively... Ukrainian people are dying," he said.

"The Russians have blocked our supplies to Mariupol, Melitopol, Berdyansk, Kherson, Kharkiv... They are kidnapping the mayors of our cities. They killed some of them. Some of them we can't find. Some of them we have found already, and they are dead. And some of them were replaced. They are doing the same thing that they did in Donbas in 2014. The same people are carrying out these operations. It's the same methodology," he said.

"The West can't say, 'We'll help you in the weeks [to come].' It doesn't allow us to unblock Russia-occupied cities, to bring food to residents there, to take the military initiative into our own hands," Zelensky said.

"People are simply not able to get out. There is no food, medicine or drinking water there. And this is something we must do. These are issues which need to be addressed today and tomorrow, not in a couple of weeks," he said.