Lula da Silva cancels trip to summit in Russia due to head injury

(Patria) - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has cancelled his trip to Russia for the BRICS summit after injuring his head, his office announced, AFP reported.

It was not specified how the injury occurred, but it was stated that he was taken to the hospital where doctors determined he had sustained a cut on the back of his head and advised him not to travel far. Local media report that he fell in his bathroom on Saturday evening, sustaining a cut that required stitches.

Lula (78) will, however, participate in the BRICS meeting via videoconference and will perform his usual duties this week at the presidential palace in Brasilia, his office announced.

The three-day summit of BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), as well as their partners, will bring about twenty world leaders to the city of Kazan starting on Tuesday.

Lula was scheduled to travel from Brasilia to Russia early Sunday evening.
The BRICS summit would have been Lula's first face-to-face meeting with Putin this year. In September, the two spoke by phone about a Brazilian-Chinese proposal to end the war in Ukraine.

Putin skipped the last BRICS summit in South Africa after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for him following Kyiv's complaint that invasion troops had illegally deported Ukrainian children to Russia.

Putin announced on Friday that he would not attend the G20 summit in Brazil in November, as his presence could "disrupt" the conference. He insisted that the ICC arrest warrant was not a factor, saying that "rulings of this type can be very easily circumvented."