Russia calls for UN meeting on Syria's Eastern Ghouta

Moscow's Permanent Representative to the UN Vassily Nebenzia on Wednesday called for a UN Security Council meeting on Syria's besieged Eastern Ghouta.

Nebenzia asked the UN body to hold the meeting on Thursday.

Home to some 400,000 civilian residents, Eastern Ghouta has remained under a crippling regime siege for the last five years.

Syria has been locked in a devastating civil war since March 2011 when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.

While UN officials say hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict, Syrian regime officials say the death toll is closer to 10,000.