Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva postponed his trip to Russia for the BRICS conference on Sunday due to a head injury, according to his office.
It did not specify how the injury occurred, but he was taken to a hospital, where physicians discovered a cut on the back of his skull and cautioned him against long-distance travel.
According to local media, Lula fell in his restroom on Saturday night, resulting in a wound that required stitches.
The 78-year-old Lula will, however, attend the BRICS meeting via videoconference and will continue to perform his customary duties at the presidential palace in Brasilia this week, his office stated.
The three-day summit of the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) and their partners will bring about 20 international leaders to Kazan beginning Tuesday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin arranged the conference in what some observers see as a bold move to demonstrate that Russia’s war in Ukraine has not left it isolated.
Lula was planned to leave Brasilia early Sunday evening for Russia.
The BRICS summit would have been Lula’s first in-person meeting with Putin this year. In September, the two men spoke on the phone to discuss a Brazilian-Chinese proposal to settle the Ukraine conflict.
Putin skipped the last BRICS conference in South Africa after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him in response to Kyiv’s complaint that invading soldiers illegally transported Ukrainian children to Russia.
Putin said on Friday that he will not attend the G20 summit in Brazil in November due to concerns that his presence might “disrupt” the conference.
He argued that the ICC warrant for his arrest had no bearing, claiming “that rulings of this type can be gotten around very easily.”