arenes bearing ortho‐directing groups (DG) in the presence of a ruthenium catalyst and aryl iodide is presented. The reaction is general for variously substituted aryl iodides to giveketones in moderate to good yields, and water serves as the solvent. The system is highly selective towards the mono‐carbonylativearylation by ortho CH functionalization. cod=cyclo‐1,5‐octadiene.