Prime Minister Robert on Friday evening condemned Russia's bombing of a maternity hospital in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol as a “cowardly act of evil”.
Speaking at a major Labour Party electoral event, Abela said he couldn’t talk about the future of the country without first talking about what is going on in Ukraine.
He said he had just come back from an informal meeting of EU leaders in France to discuss the Russian invasion.
He told party supporters that he had expressed his anger when he saw news coverage of Russian airstrikes.
“This was a cowardly act. An act of evil,” he said, in what is his strongest condemnation of Russia's aggression to date. Abela has previously called for peace in the region and condemned the aggression while cautioning against stigmatising Russians.
The children's and maternity hospital in Mariupol was attacked on Wednesday in what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described as a Russian "war crime", and which sparked global outrage.
Ukrainian officials said Thursday that at least three people were killed in the bombing, including a young girl.
Video shared from the site by rescue workers showed a scene of complete devastation, with the wounded being evacuated, some on stretchers, past charred and burning cars and a massive crater by the building.
Russia's foreign ministry did not deny the attack but accused Ukrainian "nationalist battalions" of using the hospital to set up firing positions after moving out staff and patients.
Meanwhile, the Russian army claimed Thursday that the attack on the children's hospital was a "staged provocation" by Ukraine.
Damaged buildings, destroyed cars and debris at the bombed hospital. Photo: AFP"The Russian aviation carried out absolutely no missions to hit targets on the ground in the Mariupol area," Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.
"The airstrike that allegedly took place in a completely staged provocation to maintain anti-Russian hype for a Western audience," he said.
European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen called the attack "inhumane, cruel and tragic".
"I am convinced that this can be a war crime. We need a full investigation," she tweeted.
Abela, who attended an EU leaders' summit this week, told his audience on Friday that events showed how the world could be "turned upside down" within a matter of weeks.
Concerns about rising energy prices and shortages of key foodstuffs such as wheat have prompted the government to set aside €200 million to cover those price hikes to the end of 2022.