diff --git a/.ci/pitest-suppressions/pitest-coding-1-suppressions.xml b/.ci/pitest-suppressions/pitest-coding-1-suppressions.xml
index e3bb01fbde1..2e194f1a2e1 100644
--- a/.ci/pitest-suppressions/pitest-coding-1-suppressions.xml
+++ b/.ci/pitest-suppressions/pitest-coding-1-suppressions.xml
@@ -144,15 +144,6 @@
     <lineContent>else if (isChild(currentNode, variable)) {</lineContent>
   </mutation>
 
-  <mutation unstable="false">
-    <sourceFile>VariableDeclarationUsageDistanceCheck.java</sourceFile>
-    <mutatedClass>com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.checks.coding.VariableDeclarationUsageDistanceCheck</mutatedClass>
-    <mutatedMethod>getFirstNodeInsideIfBlock</mutatedMethod>
-    <mutator>org.pitest.mutationtest.engine.gregor.mutators.RemoveConditionalMutator_EQUAL_ELSE</mutator>
-    <description>removed conditional - replaced equality check with false</description>
-    <lineContent>else if (isChild(currentNode, variable)) {</lineContent>
-  </mutation>
-
   <mutation unstable="false">
     <sourceFile>VariableDeclarationUsageDistanceCheck.java</sourceFile>
     <mutatedClass>com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.checks.coding.VariableDeclarationUsageDistanceCheck</mutatedClass>
@@ -162,15 +153,6 @@
     <lineContent>if (currentNode.getType() == TokenTypes.LITERAL_IF) {</lineContent>
   </mutation>
 
-  <mutation unstable="false">
-    <sourceFile>VariableDeclarationUsageDistanceCheck.java</sourceFile>
-    <mutatedClass>com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.checks.coding.VariableDeclarationUsageDistanceCheck</mutatedClass>
-    <mutatedMethod>getFirstNodeInsideIfBlock</mutatedMethod>
-    <mutator>org.pitest.mutationtest.engine.gregor.mutators.RemoveConditionalMutator_EQUAL_ELSE</mutator>
-    <description>removed conditional - replaced equality check with false</description>
-    <lineContent>if (currentNode.getType() == TokenTypes.LITERAL_IF) {</lineContent>
-  </mutation>
-
   <mutation unstable="false">
     <sourceFile>VariableDeclarationUsageDistanceCheck.java</sourceFile>
     <mutatedClass>com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.checks.coding.VariableDeclarationUsageDistanceCheck</mutatedClass>
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/coding/VariableDeclarationUsageDistanceCheck.java b/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/coding/VariableDeclarationUsageDistanceCheck.java
index 01b38a36690..269ebc67646 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/coding/VariableDeclarationUsageDistanceCheck.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/coding/VariableDeclarationUsageDistanceCheck.java
@@ -763,11 +763,9 @@ private static DetailAST getFirstNodeInsideIfBlock(
 
         if (!isVariableInOperatorExpr(block, variable)) {
             DetailAST currentNode = block.getLastChild();
-            final List<DetailAST> variableUsageExpressions =
-                    new ArrayList<>();
+            final List<DetailAST> variableUsageExpressions = new ArrayList<>();
 
-            while (currentNode != null
-                    && currentNode.getType() == TokenTypes.LITERAL_ELSE) {
+            if (currentNode.getType() == TokenTypes.LITERAL_ELSE) {
                 final DetailAST previousNode =
                         currentNode.getPreviousSibling();
 
@@ -778,20 +776,14 @@ private static DetailAST getFirstNodeInsideIfBlock(
 
                 // Looking into ELSE block, get its first child and analyze it.
                 currentNode = currentNode.getFirstChild();
-
-                if (currentNode.getType() == TokenTypes.LITERAL_IF) {
-                    currentNode = currentNode.getLastChild();
-                }
-                else if (isChild(currentNode, variable)) {
-                    variableUsageExpressions.add(currentNode);
-                    currentNode = null;
-                }
             }
 
             // If IF block doesn't include ELSE then analyze variable usage
             // only inside IF block.
-            if (currentNode != null
-                    && isChild(currentNode, variable)) {
+            // OR
+            // The IF block contained ELSE and currentNode is equal to the first child in
+            // ELSE block, then also analyze the first child.
+            if (isChild(currentNode, variable)) {
                 variableUsageExpressions.add(currentNode);
             }
 
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/coding/VariableDeclarationUsageDistanceCheckTest.java b/src/test/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/coding/VariableDeclarationUsageDistanceCheckTest.java
index bf2f3250dcf..aab4c75250e 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/coding/VariableDeclarationUsageDistanceCheckTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/coding/VariableDeclarationUsageDistanceCheckTest.java
@@ -86,6 +86,7 @@ public void testGeneralLogic2() throws Exception {
             "17:9: " + getCheckMessage(MSG_KEY, "first", 5, 1),
             "29:9: " + getCheckMessage(MSG_KEY, "allInvariants", 2, 1),
             "59:9: " + getCheckMessage(MSG_KEY, "a", 2, 1),
+            "68:9: " + getCheckMessage(MSG_KEY, "a", 4, 1),
         };
         verifyWithInlineConfigParser(
                 getPath("InputVariableDeclarationUsageDistanceGeneral2.java"), expected);
diff --git a/src/test/resources/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/coding/variabledeclarationusagedistance/InputVariableDeclarationUsageDistanceGeneral2.java b/src/test/resources/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/coding/variabledeclarationusagedistance/InputVariableDeclarationUsageDistanceGeneral2.java
index d361ad7216d..4ad0a3e6395 100644
--- a/src/test/resources/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/coding/variabledeclarationusagedistance/InputVariableDeclarationUsageDistanceGeneral2.java
+++ b/src/test/resources/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/coding/variabledeclarationusagedistance/InputVariableDeclarationUsageDistanceGeneral2.java
@@ -63,4 +63,14 @@ void method() throws Exception {
             a.equals("");
         }
     }
+
+    void method2() {
+        int a = 12; // violation
+        if (true) {
+            method2();
+            p();
+            method2();
+            a++;
+        }
+    }
 }