A senior Russian military figure has claimed the US sending long-range missiles to Ukraine is an act of war against Moscow.
US President Joe Biden announced that the US will send the rocket systems to the invaded which will advance Ukraine's capabilities.
The weapon can simultaneously launch multiple precision-guided missiles and has a huge range with extreme precision.
Leading Kremlin propagandist has also claimed the move raises the chances of Russian President Vladimir Putin launching a nuclear strategic strike at the US.
Retired Lieutenant-General Evgeny Buzhinsky, 72, a former senior officer in the Soviet and Russian armies, said they should not downplay the severity of the US move.
He told state-run Rossiya 1 channel: “It means the Americans are at war with us, and we will be striking decision-making centres.
“When Putin was talking about decision-making centres, it was about nuclear weapons, not about multiple rocket launchers.
“However, if these systems do appear, it will already be a different level…
“It will no longer be a special operation, but a normal war.
“Then it should be necessary to act like in a normal war and strike decision-making centres.”
The weapons will allow Ukrainian forces to strike Russian troops from a very far distance outside the range of Russia ’s artillery.
HIMAR units carry one preloaded pod of six 227mm guided missiles or one large pod loaded with an Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) tactical missile.
The units can be reloaded in about a minute with only a small crew, bolstering their reliability.
Writing in the New York Times, President Biden said the weapons are meant to help Ukraine “fight on the battlefield and be in the strongest possible position at the negotiating table”.
Lieutenant-General Buzhinsky urged the Kremlin to target key government and industrial sites in Ukraine.
He said: "[We should] strike large industrial centres, yes, civilian infrastructure will be damaged, that up to now, [we] are still trying to somehow preserve.
“If such weapons appear, [we should] lift the restrictions we imposed on ourselves.”
Television anchorman Vladimir Solovyov, who has won the moniker "Putin’s Voice", warned that US president Joe Biden is downplaying the likelihood of Putin pulling the trigger on nuclear weapons.
Mocking Biden’s alleged certainty that Putin would not deploy his atomic arsenal, Solovyov told viewers: “Joe, we are not planning to strike Ukraine with tactical weapons. If things go not well…if we do strike, that will be with strategic [nuclear] ones.
“And not Ukraine at all” - implying a strike at the US.
