In Visual Studio Code, when debugging a python code (.py), is it possible to start an interactive session window interact with the program in that window?

It is suggested to "Add #%% at the top to indicate a Jupyter cell." This does start an interactive window, but the interactive session does not connect to the current .py file. It shows a pending sign when evaluating a variable in the interactive window.

I can evaluate a variable during a python debug session in the standard DEBUG CONSOLE window. But it will be nice to do everything in an interactive window without opening the debug console window.

Thank you!

current VS Code version: 1.98.0