England, who had skipper Steven Gerrard sent off in the 88th minute for a second yellow card, looked to be heading to a first defeat under coach Roy Hodgson until Lampard's 87th-minute penalty rescued a Group H point.
Lampard, who scored twice against Moldova, took his England tally to 26 when he slammed his spot-kick home after Evhen Khacheridi was adjudged to have handled substitute Danny Welbeck's shot.
It looked like that was going to exact Ukraine's revenge for their 1-0 defeat by England at Euro 2012 but the hosts' late spell of pressure finally paid off.
"We started poorly in the first 10 minutes but once we got into our stride I thought we had quite good control over the game," Hodgson told reporters.
"We went 1-0 down to a wonder-strike but against a good Ukraine team, I was very pleased with the way we kept probing and playing our football and kept taking the game to them and kept creating chances.
"So in the end we fully deserved our equaliser and I am pleased with the way the players went about their task."
"We made a great start and deserved to be leading at half-time because we caused them problems they could not solve," he said.
"I think some of the young players were a bit intimidated by playing England at Wembley, but they did very well. England did play better in the second half and we got tired, but this is still a very good point for us.
"Of course if we don't get points against Poland and Montenegro and San Marino it will all be in vain but a draw was good in the end."
Ukraine, though, kept England on the back foot though Defoe set up Tom Cleverley with a golden opportunity after 34 minutes but the midfielder shot straight at keeper Andriy Pyatov's feet.
