UniCredit Shares Open Down 8 Percent on Ukraine Crisis

The logo of UniCredit Bank outside the company's branch in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 30, 2016. Gleb Garanich/Reuters

MILAN—Shares in UniCredit, whose Russian arm is one of the largest lenders in the country, fell as much as 8 percent on Thursday, before triggering an automatic trading suspension, hit by the escalation of the Ukraine crisis.

Russian forces fired missiles at several cities in Ukraine and landed troops on its coast on Thursday.