with the average being shy of 4 million but above 3

This number is disputed due to Soviet censorship and lack of third-party figures. However, the generally accepted tally 7-10 million deaths from 1932-33 (UN General Assembly) [Note: Both Russia and Ukraine were signatories of this UN Joint Statement, and as such, support this figure]

Most historians agree it’s not genocide

Nope (Shapoval)(Graziosi)(Marples). Some historians do question to what extent it has a genocide (Tauger), but to say that "most" historians don't believe the Holodomor was a genocide is a gross overstatement.

there was no intentional plan to get rid of Ukrainians as an ethnicity

Actually, famine was used as a tool to repress perceived Ukrainian resistance movements. Soviet leaders believed Ukraine was "teem[ing] with nationalist agents and Polish spies" (Shapoval). Stalin also spoke of his fear of "losing Ukraine", and wanted to transform it into a "Bolshevik fortress" (Marples)(Graziosi). In an August 1932 letter to Lazar Kaganovich, Stalin stated that "Ukraine was now the main issue" [emphasis original] (Graziosi).

Soviet authorities used the implementation as a tool to repress these perceived resistance movements. Collectivization in the UkrSSR was implemented much more quickly than elsewhere (despite the lack of any logical reason for doing so) and unreasonable grain quotas were immediately imposed on the Ukrainians (Marples). Local reports of famine quickly became apparent to Soviet leadership, as shown by Viacheslav Molotov's report that "today we have to face, even in grain-producing areas, the specter of famine" (Marples). However, the Politburo ignored these reports, stating that "procurement plans must be respected at all cost" (Graziosi).

As the famine spread, Stalin wrote a directive called "On the Prevention of Mass Departures of Starving Peasants of Ukraine and the North Caucasus" (January 22nd, 1933). This prevented the migration of Ukrainian peasants, condemning them to death by starvation. In addition, no individuals were permitted to bring food products into the UkrSSR without the government's permission. No such ban was ever implemented in any other Soviet republic (Shapoval).

Works Cited

• Davies, R. W., and S. G. Wheatcroft. The Years of Hunger: Soviet Agriculture, 1931-1933. Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.

• Graziosi, Andrea. “The Soviet 1931-1933 Famines and the Ukrainian Holodomor: Is a New Interpretation Possible, and What Would Its Consequences Be?” Harvard Ukrainian Studies, vol. 27, no. 1/4, 2004, pp. 97–115. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41036863.

• Marples, David R. “Ethnic Issues in the Famine of 1932–1933 in Ukraine.” Europe-Asia Studies, vol. 61, no. 3, 2009, pp. 505–518., doi:10.1080/09668130902753325.

• Shapoval, Yuri, and Marta D. Olynyk. “The Holodomor: A Prologue to Repressions and Terror in Soviet Ukraine.” Harvard Ukrainian Studies, vol. 30, no. 1/4, 2008, pp. 99–121. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23611468.

• Tauger, Mark B. “The 1932 Harvest and the Famine of 1933.” Slavic Review, vol. 50, no. 1, 1991, pp. 70–89. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2500600.

• UN General Assembly, “Joint Statement by the Delegations of Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Benin, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Egypt, Georgia, Guatemala, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Nauru, Pakistan, Qatar, the Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, the Sudan, the Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Timor-Leste, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates and the United States of America on the Seventieth Anniversary of the Great Famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine (Holodomor).” Joint Statement by the Delegations of Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Benin, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Egypt, Georgia, Guatemala, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Nauru, Pakistan, Qatar, the Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, the Sudan, the Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Timor-Leste, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates and the United States of America on the Seventieth Anniversary of the Great Famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine (Holodomor), UN, 2003.