diff --git a/.ci/pitest-suppressions/pitest-coding-1-suppressions.xml b/.ci/pitest-suppressions/pitest-coding-1-suppressions.xml
index 03c4e89177d..1b77ac98e67 100644
--- a/.ci/pitest-suppressions/pitest-coding-1-suppressions.xml
+++ b/.ci/pitest-suppressions/pitest-coding-1-suppressions.xml
@@ -9,15 +9,6 @@
     <lineContent>if (!firstUsageFound) {</lineContent>
   </mutation>
 
-  <mutation unstable="false">
-    <sourceFile>VariableDeclarationUsageDistanceCheck.java</sourceFile>
-    <mutatedClass>com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.checks.coding.VariableDeclarationUsageDistanceCheck</mutatedClass>
-    <mutatedMethod>getFirstNodeInsideForWhileDoWhileBlocks</mutatedMethod>
-    <mutator>org.pitest.mutationtest.engine.gregor.mutators.RemoveConditionalMutator_EQUAL_ELSE</mutator>
-    <description>removed conditional - replaced equality check with false</description>
-    <lineContent>if (currentNodeType == TokenTypes.SLIST) {</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 d1b5a08ffb5..322c2e10cd7 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
@@ -740,10 +740,7 @@ private static DetailAST getFirstNodeInsideForWhileDoWhileBlocks(
 
             final int currentNodeType = currentNode.getType();
 
-            if (currentNodeType == TokenTypes.SLIST) {
-                firstNodeInsideBlock = currentNode.getFirstChild();
-            }
-            else if (currentNodeType != TokenTypes.EXPR) {
+            if (currentNodeType != TokenTypes.EXPR) {
                 firstNodeInsideBlock = currentNode;
             }
         }