Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has canceled his planned trip to Russia for the upcoming BRICS summit due to a head injury, as announced by his office on Sunday.
The details surrounding the injury remain unclear, but it was reported that Lula fell in his bathroom on Saturday night, sustaining a cut to the back of his head that required stitches. Doctors advised against long-distance travel for the 78-year-old leader after evaluating his condition.
Despite the setback, Lula will still participate in the BRICS meeting via videoconference and will continue his normal duties from the presidential palace in Brasília this week. The three-day summit, which includes Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, will convene around 20 world leaders in Kazan, starting Tuesday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is hosting the summit, which some analysts view as a statement of resilience amid ongoing tensions from Russia’s war in Ukraine. Lula was set to leave Brasília on Sunday evening for the meeting, which would have marked his first in-person interaction with Putin this year. The two leaders previously discussed a joint Brazilian-Chinese initiative to address the Ukraine conflict during a phone call in September.
Notably, Putin missed the last BRICS summit in South Africa after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him, alleging that his troops had unlawfully deported Ukrainian children. Furthermore, he recently announced he would skip the G20 summit in Brazil this November, asserting that his decision was not influenced by the ICC warrant but rather concerns over potential disruptions to the conference.
