DAVOS, Switzerland — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for “maximum” sanctions on Russia during a virtual speech on the first day of the World Economic Forum gathering of corporate executives, government officials and other elites in Davos.

Zelensky said sanctions needed to go further to stop Russian aggression, including imposing an oil embargo, blocking all of its banks and cutting off trade with Russia completely. He said that it would be a precedent that would work for decades to come.

“This is what sanctions should be: They should be maximum, so that Russia and every other potential aggressor that wants to wage a brutal war against its neighbor would clearly know the immediate consequences of their actions,” Zelensky said, speaking through an interpreter.

He also pushed for the complete withdrawal of foreign companies from Russia to prevent supporting its war and said Ukraine needed funding — at least $5 billion per month.

“The amount of work is enormous: We have more than half a trillion of dollars in losses; tens of thousands of facilities were destroyed. We need to rebuild entire cities and industries,” Zelensky said, days after the Group of 7 leading economies agreed to provide $19.8 billion in economic aid.

The U.S. has also approved $40 billion more in aid to the government in Kyiv.

He said that if Ukraine had “received 100% of our needs at once, back in February,” in terms of weapons, funding, political support and sanctions against Russia, “the result would be tens of thousands of lives saved.”

Zelensky’s speech was a key focus Monday at Davos, the village in the Swiss Alps that has been transformed into a glitzy venue for the four-day confab ostensibly dedicated to making the world a better place.

The event is resuming in person after a two-year hiatus because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which also delayed this year’s meeting from its usual winter slot.