Plunging water levels at Ukraine’s collapsed Kakhovka reservoir could cut off drinking supplies to more than 700,000 people, experts have warned.

They also say the June 6 dam blast, blamed widely on Russian sabotage, could push global food prices up by slashing Ukraine’s agricultural output.

The catastrophe at one of Europe’s biggest reservoirs, on the Dnipro River in the country’s south, flooded more than 3,000 homes.

Before Russia invaded its neighbour last February, the water network irrigated 22,200 square miles of crop-growing land.

Chilling analysis by the BBC’s Verify team has compared satellite shots of the reservoir before the blast and a week ago. They show the shrunken lake now reveals the original shape of the river.

And four canal networks which fed off the main body of water have been cut off since the dam was demolished.

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Officials say the area, which produced two million tons of grain and oilseeds each year, cannot be kept alive by rainfall alone.

United Nations emergency relief coordinator, Martin Griffiths, predicted a “huge impact on global food security”. He said the area was “a bread basket, not only for Ukraine but also for the world”.

Meanwhile, Russia claimed that British Storm Shadow long-range missiles were used to strike two parallel bridges over Crimea’s key Chonhar strait.

The crossing is the quickest and most direct route from the annexed Crimean peninsular to the front line of the war.

Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-installed governor in Kherson, posted photos of the damaged bridges and said the attack was “ordered by London”.

In Kyiv, at least three people died and several others were injured in an overnight explosion at a high-rise apartment building.

The city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said 18 people were evacuated from the 15-floor block in the capital’s Dniprovskyi district.

Authorities believe the blast was caused by a gas leak.

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