European finance reacts to the Ukrainian conflict with emergency plans and the freezing of bonds.

The European financial sector was shaken Thursday by the aggravation of the conflict in Ukraine. Deutsche Bank said it had contingency plans in place and Allianz said it had frozen its exposure to Russian government bonds.

Britain’s biggest creditor, Lloyds, said it was on “high alert” for cyberattacks from Russia as the crisis in Ukraine worsened.

Shares of major banks fell early in the session. An index of European banking stocks was down 2.7% in early trading. UniCredit was down 6% and Commerzbank 7%.

Germany’s market regulator, BaFin, said it was keeping an eye on the crisis.

Earlier on Thursday, Russian forces fired missiles at several towns in Ukraine and landed troops on its shores, officials and media said, after President Vladimir Putin cleared what he called a special military operation in the east of the country.

Deutsche Bank and Allianz – two of Europe’s largest financial firms, both of which have operations in Russia – have said they are ready to comply with the sanctions.