Social workers removed Yulia Savinovskikh’s two foster sons last year on suspicion that she had planned a sex change operation after undergoing breast reduction surgery. A local district court sided with social workers there and declined to return the two adopted sons to Savinovskikh in Yekaterinburg last week.

A court in Yekaterinburg has justified the removal of a mother’s adopted children by declaring her a "man in a same-sex marriage."

"Savinovskikh’s self-identification as a male — taking into account her marriage with a man, the desire to adopt a social role peculiar to a male — in essence contradicts the principles of our country’s family law, the traditions and mentality of our society," reads an excerpt of the court’s motivation published by Savinovskikh’s lawyer.

Alexei Bushmakov, the woman’s lawyer, said the courts used the same-sex marriage argument after claiming that Savinovskikh had "some sort of disease that prevents her from being a guardian."

"In other words, the judge has found that Savinovskikh is in a same-sex marriage with her husband, and children should not be brought up in a same-sex family," Bushmakov told the Advgazeta.ru legal publication.

"If anyone else still has doubts, they can leave the country," Bushmakov wrote on Facebook on Monday.