Leonid Butelin was born in 1919 in Rodna in the Mogilev region.

He graduated from the 8th Odessa military aviation school of pilots “P. D. Osipenkova”.

In June 1941, he belonged to the 12 IAP of the 64 SmAD.

On 22 June 1941, he took part in the unit’s desperate attempt to protect their airbase. The Luftwaffe attack claimed 36 of the units 66 I-153s destroyed on the ground. The unit claimed eight Ju 88 around Stanislau of which Butelin claimed two. The second of these was claimed at 05:42 in a “taran” ramming attack at an altitude of 200 meters near Galich in which Butelin was killed himself.
12 IAP lost another three I-153s in the air combats.

Butelin was awarded the Order of the Red Banner posthumously.

At the time of his death, Butelin was credited with 2 biplane victories.

He is remembered by a monument near Galich made by the sculptor Valentine Usova from Lvov. The monument has the form of a bronze winged person falling from the sky.

Claims:

Kill no.	Date	Time	Number	Type	Result	Plane type	Serial no.	Locality	Unit
	1941
1	22/06/41	morning	1	Ju 88	Destroyed	I-153		Stanislau	12 IAP
2	22/06/41	05:42	1	Ju 88 (a)	Destroyed	I-153		Galich	12 IAP

Biplane victories: 2 destroyed.
TOTAL: 2 destroyed.
(a) Claimed in a “taran” ramming attack.

Sources:
Aerohobby No.1'94, kindly via Alexey Andreev
Aeroram
Black Cross/Red Star Volume I - Christer Bergström and Andrey Mikhailov, 2000 Pacifica Military History, ISBN 0-935553-48-7
Stalin's Eagles - Hans D. Seidl, 1998 Schiffer Publishing, ISBN 0-7643-0476-3
Stalin's Falcons - Tomas Polak and Christhoper Shores, 1999 Grub Street, London, ISBN 1-902304-01-2
Sturmovik Technika
Additional information kindly provided by Yuri Shakhov.