The West recognized South Ossetia as being part of Georgia, iirc. So then for the West the Russian attack on Georgia was an invasion. Whatever Russia’s “de facto” claim was.

Because today too, Russia claims that there is a “de facto” independent country in western Ukraine they are “helping”. Pretext for war, just as the South Ossetia pretext.

Import bit is: the West never reacted to Russian aggressions in any meaningful way.