The recent development of ruthenium olefin-metathesis catalysts coordinated with N-heterocyclic carbene ligands is a significant advance because it extends the scope of the reaction to more challenging substrates, that is, those that are sterically hindered or that contain electronically deactivating groups, as well as monomers with low ring strain. [1±4] One set of substrates that has received relatively little attention, however, is the halogenated olefins; [5] the metathesis of allyl bromide, allyl chloride, and related substrates with the heterogeneous Re 2 O 7 /Al 2 O 3 /Me 4 Sn catalyst system are among the few examples. [6] Most recently, the cross metathesis of 3,3,4,4,5,5,6,6,6-nonafluoro-1-hexene with terminal olefin [4c] and the dimerization of vinyl gem-difluorocyclopropane derivatives [7] have been achieved using [(H 2 IMes)-(PCy 3 )(Cl) 2 RuCHPh] (1) (H 2 IMes 1,3-dimesityl-4,5-dihydroimidazol-2-ylidene; Cy cyclohexyl). In these cases, the substrates are challenging because of the electron-withdrawing nature of the pendent halogens.A particularly interesting situation arises when the olefin is directly halogenated, because then the metathesis reaction will involve a monohalo [M] CXR or dihalo [M] CX 2 carbene complex rather than the usual alkylidene [M] CR 2 . This possibility has been considered by Beauchamp and coworkers, who have speculated about the metathesis of directly fluorinated olefins with nickel or manganese complexes. [8] A tungsten dichlorocarbene complex [W]CCl 2 has also been proposed as an active species in the W(CO) 6 /CCl 4 /hn catalyst system. [9] To our knowledge, there has been only one report of metathesis involving directly halogenated olefins, namely the cross metathesis of 1-chloro-and 1-bromoethylene with propylene using Re 2 O 7 /Al 2 O 3 /Me 4 Sn. [6e] Herein, we report the successful metathesis of 1,1-difluoroethylene with ruthenium catalyst 1.Under an atmosphere of 1,1-difluoroethylene, 1 reacts to form the corresponding methylidene [(H 2 IMes)(PCy 3 )-(Cl) 2 RuCH 2 ] (2) [10] and difluorocarbene [(H 2 IMes)-(PCy 3 )(Cl) 2 Ru CF 2 ] (3) complexes [Eq. (1)]. [11] When the reaction is performed at room temperature, the product mixture contains approximately 40 % methylidene (2) and 60 % difluorocarbene (3), as well as styrene and b,b-