•Knowledge flows among farmers and other actors in the Donbass Region are complex.•Farmers prefer to use their own resources, including peer-to-peer knowledge sharing.•The Internet is a widely-consulted source of information and advice by farmers.•Tacit knowledge is highly valued by farmers in their relationships with advisors.•An information brokering service could enhance knowledge flows between actors. The agriculture sector of the Donbass Region in eastern Ukraine is facing serious challenges caused by the ongoing military conflict and consequent disruption of the earlier-established value chains. An advisory service potentially could help farmers to adapt to the changed circumstances. To inform the development process, an interview survey was conducted among 80 farmers in the region of their perceived information and advisory needs. Most interviewees stated that many issues affect the performance of their farm. Of all the given farmer × issue ‘interactions’ (i.e. a given farmer facing a specific issue), advice had been sought in around 70 per cent of instances. For any specific issue, most farmers sought advice from several sources. Interviewees attached very high importance to accessibility, convenience, previous personal experience, personal recommendation and confidence in the quality of advice given. Friends and family was the most popular source of advice, with farmers’ organisations, local government agencies and agricultural Internet portals all being consulted by more than half of the interviewees. Many other sources were used by fewer than ten farmers. Twelve interviewees said that they would seek advice from advisory services if this was available. Following the analysis of the questionnaire results, three farmer focus groups were held to help interpret them. We conclude that, even in the absence of a formal advisory service, many farmers in the region are actively acquiring and sharing knowledge and that the agricultural innovation system continues to function despite the disruption caused by the conflict. Any new intervention should recognise this fact and be designed to improve knowledge flows between actors further, rather than to replace those that currently exist.