Les Bleus opened the scoring from Antoine Griezmann’s 19th minute curler from outside the box, while Olivier Giroud had a good chance to add a second before half-time.
Ukraine capitalised on the narrow margin after half-time, with Sergey Sidorchuk’s strike taking a wicked deflection off Presnel Kimpembe to level the game.
France boss Didier Deschamps was left disappointed with his side’s second-half display.
“We should have secured the win in the first half, we had the opportunities, it was more difficult in the second half,” Deschamps told TF1 post-game.
“There was certainly less juice, the goal that we conceded was avoidable, we pushed to the end.”
The Les Bleus manager added that he’s likely to make changes to his side for their next qualifier against Kazakhstan on Saturday.
“With more freshness and some momentum we could do a lot better but a lot of my players had played in their domestic leagues on Sunday,” Deschamps said.
Meanwhile, Belgium came from behind to claim a 3-1 home win in Leuven on Wales.
Kevin De Bruyne and Thorgan Hazard pulled back goals for the Red Devils before half-time after Harry Wilson opened the scoring for the visitors.
Romelu Lukaku added a 73rd minute penalty after Dries Mertens was brought down inside the box to seal the win.
Burak Yilmaz netted a hat-trick as Turkey stunned the Netherlands 4-2, while Serbia beat the Republic of Ireland 3-2 in Group A.
Slovenia knocked off 2018 World Cup runners-up Croatia 1-0 and Portugal edged Azerbaijan 1-0.