Send e-mail using TLS 1.2 connection from R language

I have a script in R language that automatically sends e-mails to predefined recipients. The mail server increased security requirements and I have to use not older than TLS 1.2 connection type.

Is it possible to force the usage of connection type TLS 1.2.

I am using the following code to send mails via R:

    library(mailR)
    send.mail(from = from_txt,
              to = send_to,
              subject = sbjct,
              body = "Confidential, ...",
              smtp = list(host.name = MAIL_SMTP_SERVER, 
                          port = MAIL_SMTP_PORT, 
                          user.name = MAIL_ADDRESS, 
                          passwd = MAIL_PASSWORD, 
                          tls = TRUE),
              authenticate = TRUE,
              send = TRUE,
              attach.files = attachments,
              file.names = file_names, # optional parameter
              file.descriptions = file_descriptions, # optional parameter
              debug = F)

Maybe there is a work around of using another library in R Language. Is it possible to do via some Linux e-mail command?

Please, note, that the mail server is private, I do not use public services such as gmail.com or something like that.