By the end of the war he was head of a SMERSH detachment with a regiment, and during the 1950s was part of military counterintelligence assigned to the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, as part of the Ministry of State Security (MGB), and its successors the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD), and finally the Committee for State Security (KGB).

In retirement Ustinov published on the subject of the history of military counterintelligence, took part in anniversary events and was a consultant on documentary films.

Ustinov was born on 1 January 1920 in the village of Malaya Bobrovka, then part of Yekaterinburg Governorate [ru], in the Russian SFSR, USSR.

[1] He attended the Irbitsky feldsher-obstetric school, graduating in August 1938 and being assigned to work in the NKVD's North Ural forced labour camp [ru].

[2] Assigned to the state's security organs, he began the course of operational studies at the NKVD's school in Mogilev on 10 June 1941, less than two weeks before the outbreak of war.

[1] He was assigned to the 6th Cavalry Division, then at Białystok, but with the rapid advance of enemy forces, found himself cut off and unable to reach his unit.

The detachment was eventually able to break through the encirclement and withdraw to safety, a fact the commander of the assembly point credited to Ustinov's actions.

[5] From November 1945 Ustinov was deputy head of the SMERSH detachment for the 36th Guards Rifle Corps in the Baltic Military District.

[1][2] Ustinov held this post until January 1957, when he returned to the Soviet Union as Deputy Head of the KGB's military counterintelligence section in the 69th Air Army.

[1][3][6] Promoted to general-lieutenant on 15 June 1971, Ustinov was next appointed Head of the KGB's Special Directorate for the Soviet Forces in Germany from November 1973 until July 1981.