Kovtun was born in 1915 in the Kharkov region.

In June 1941 Kovtun served in the 62 ShAP of the 63 SmAD (Composite Air Division).

At 12:00 on 22 June 1941 he was killed while deliberately ramming a Junkers Ju 88 with his burning I-153 near Lisyatichi, in the L'vov region, Ukraine.
During this day KG51 lost 15 Ju 88s over West Ukraine and KG55 lost ten He 111s.

At the time of his death Kovtun was credited with 1 biplane victory.

Claims:

Kill no.	Date	Time	Number	Type	Result	Plane type	Serial no.	Locality	Unit
	1941
1	22/06/41	12:00	1	Ju 88 (a)	Destroyed	I-153		Lisyatichi area	62 ShAP

Biplane victories: 1 destroyed.
TOTAL: 1 destroyed.
(a) Claimed in a “taran” ramming attack.

Sources:
Aeroram
Triumf a tragedie - Milos Sedivy and Valerii Dymich, 2001 Svet kridel, ISBN-80-85280-70-1 kindly provided by Tomáš Polák
Additional information kindly provided by Yuri V. Shakhov.