'Happiness', pronounced [ˈʃt͡ʃɑsʲtʲɐ]; Russian: Счастье, romanized: Schastye) is a city and was the de jure administrative center of Shchastia Raion of the Luhansk Oblast (province) in Ukraine.

[3] It was mainly retaken by the volunteer fighters of the Aidar Battalion who, according to Amnesty International, then with “virtually no oversight or control” committed acts of violent abuse towards civilians in Shchastia and nearby cities, as did the separatist forces.

To facilitate the governance of Luhansk Oblast during the war in Donbas, the Verkhovna Rada on 7 October 2014 made some changes in the administrative divisions, so that the localities in the government-controlled areas were grouped into districts.

[5] In the days before the invasion, the town was shelled and fired upon by Russian-backed forces more than 900 times with incoming munitions from tanks, artillery, mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and small arms.

The strikes mostly targeted Ukrainian military installations on the outskirts of Shchastia and the Luhansk Power Plant, damaging buildings, water and electrical lines.